


Cat of the Lilac Eyes

by orphan_account



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, everyone is out-of-character, posting for archival purposes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 08:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 44,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18028715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sequel to Dragon of the Shadowed Light. When Ishizu tells Malik that their mother arranged a marriage between him and an American girl, everything seems to go downhill for the Egyptian boy. After and as soon as they meet, a war begins. He hates her and she hates him.||Reposted from fanfiction.net as I clear out old fics from my account there. Originally posted (DATE UNKNOWN - fic got deleted and I had to repost, but likely sometime in December 2005) and completed February 22, 2006.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Betrothed!

Malik glares at Ishizu. "I still don't believe this. I am not marrying some stupid American girl that I don't even know!"

Ishizu sighs and sits down on the couch beside her younger brother. "Malik, we're half American since that's where mother was from. Besides, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not that bad! You can say that because you're not just finding out you're betrothed!" Malik shouts. "I don't believe this!"

Marik blinks as he and Odeon watch the ongoing argument. "What's hikari-pretty and sister-Ishizu fighting about?"

"Ishizu just told Malik about his fiancé." Odeon says.

Marik blinks and tests out the new word. "Fee-ahn-say? What's that?"

Odeon thinks for a moment on how to explain it. "It's what Ryou and Tama are. They're going to get married but aren't yet."

"Oh."

"AND WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH MY YAMI? HE CAN BARELY HANDLE GOING AROUND DOMINO WITHOUT CAUSING TROUBLE!"

"Marik can stay with Tama and Ryou. Surely Bakura and Yume will help them keep Marik busy." Ishizu easily replies.

"I wouldn't mind staying with them. Bakura, Yume, Ryou, and Tama are fun. Even though Tama and Ryou have been studying too much…" Marik says, remembering the last time he went over.

Needless to say, Malik and Ishizu's argument (if it can be called that) lasts for quite a while before Marik decides to knock out his Light. When he notices the odd looks from Ishizu and Odeon he had simply says, "I have a headache." which makes Ishizu and Odeon both sweat drop.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

_**The Next Morning** _

The night before Ishizu had packed up all of her and Malik's things for their trip to the United States.

"I'm not going! Put me down Odeon!" Malik yells, earning many stares from Ryou and Tama's neighbors.

And they are now at Ryou and Tama's house (well, technically it's Ryou's house) in order to drop off Marik.

Leaning just outside the doorframe to the house is Bakura and Yume, who are watching in amusement as Malik struggles to get free from Odeon's hold. Tama and Ryou soon join them and sweat drop at the blonde Egyptians actions. Marik and Ishizu both look pointedly away from Malik, rather embarrassed by his extreme actions.

"Sooo… Marik's stayin' here and ya'll are off to hang in the States?" Tama asks. "Never told us where."

"Virginia." Ishizu says, unfazed by Tama's adopted southern accent. "Been chatting with Damian again I presume." It's not a question.

"She spent half the night chatting with him." Ryou says tiredly. "Took me half the night just to get her to say goodbye so she'd be able to get up by the time you all got here."

"Odeon! Put me down!" Can be heard in the background from Malik.

Marik smiles at Tama and Ryou in his little weird insane way. "Hi."

"Hey Marik, go ahead and put the stuff you brought in your old room." Ryou says. "Bakura and Yume have been bored all day, so maybe you can suggest something that doesn't have to do with shadow games, sending innocent bystanders to the shadow realm, sending household objects to the shadow realm, blowing stuff up, or driving Yami up the wall."

"Take away the last one and I can erase the boredness." Marik says, grinning evilly.

"Fine." Ryou and Tama say at the same time.

"YES!" All three yami's shout, before dashing inside to plot.

"Tama, make Odeon put me down!" Malik yells.

Tama rolls her eyes. "Malik, you overreact too much. I am not telling Odeon to put you down because he has a mind of his own and won't listen to me unless I'm talking sensibly. Seeing as how I've already downed a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi this morning and nearly a whole bag of M&M's-"

("M&M junkie…" Malik grumbles.)

Tama ignores him. "-I am in no way speaking sensibly at the moment. Or perhaps I'm speaking more sensibly than I normally do. Or may-"

Knowing it's the only way to snap her out of her rambling, Ryou pulls Tama into a deep kiss.

Ishizu sighs at her cousin's antics and glances down at her watch. She waits for Tama and Ryou to stop kissing before she speaks. "Thank you for watching Marik. I don't know what we'd do without you."

"I'd be happy because then we wouldn't be going! Curse you two and your evil yami's!" Malik yells. "Odeon, put me down for the thirty-ith time!"

The others sweat drop as Malik re-continues his struggling.

"I don't want to marry some stupid American girl! Don't make me go!"

"Ishizu, can you gag him so my neighbors don't think we're  _all_ mad psychopaths?" Ryou asks. "Please?"

"But then they may think we're kidnapping him." Ishizu says.

"Put me down!"

"On second thought," She continues. "Anybody have a handkerchief or something?"

Tama pulls a yellow bandana from her pocket. "Here."

Ryou sweat drops. "I thought you didn't carry those around in your pocket anymore."

Tama shrugs. "Habit. I only carry two around now."

Ryou raises an eyebrow. "Only two?"

"Okay, okay. I have five in my pockets. Happy now?"

"Not really, but thanks for telling me."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

In America…

A strawberry blonde-haired girl (1) sits typing at a computer in a small, crowded room. Scattered all around her are empty chocolate wrappers, pencils, and a few sheets of notebook paper that blew off the desk because of the ceiling fan. She yawns out of boredom and closes the Word program and clicks on the pinball game. Now whistling a tune she pulls up her Windows Media Player and changes the songs to some country midi's she has saved on her computer. Her blue eyes light up happily and she stops humming. Then she starts playing the pinball game.

When the doorbell rings she looks up momentarily and then automatically turns her attention back to the game before she loses.

"Ash! Come down here!" Her mother yells up the stairs.

With an aggravated sigh Ashling closes all the documents on the computer and logs out. Pulling off the gray blanket that's covering her, she stands up and lazily stretches, almost knocking her thin-wired glasses off.

"Ash!"

"I'm coming, mom!" Ashling yells, almost jerking open the door to the computer room. Grumbling something under her breath she walks down the short hallway and turns left and goes down the stairs. She yawns when she hit's the bottom and looks to her left to see two strange people sitting in her living room with her mom. One of them is a girl with black hair and tan skin and the other is a boy with pale blonde hair and tan skin.

' _He's cute…'_ Ashling thinks to herself. "What's up, mom?"

Ashling's mom sighs. "You may want to sit down, Ash."

Ashling tilts her head sideways slightly, looking confused. Then she walks around the couch and sits down on it. "So, what's going on?"

Ashling's mom is quiet for a moment before she speaks. "Ash, this is Ishizu and Malik Ishtar. Ash… you and Malik… you're betrothed."

Ashling stares at her mom in shock for a moment.

"WHAT!"


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: Coping_

Ashling stares at her mom in shock. "There is no way I'm marrying some boy that I don't even know! Hell, I'm only seventeen!"

"Don't raise your voice to me Ashling Phoenix." Her mother says warningly.

Ashling glares at Malik as if it's all his fault.

"How about you two get to know one another." Ishizu suggests, getting a glare from both of the blonde teens.

"What a wonderful idea!" Ashling's mom exclaims. "How about you show Malik around the yard."

"How about I don't and say I did." Ashling grumbles.

Her mom gives her a hard look. "Ashling."

Ashling rolls her eyes. "Fine. C'mon blondie." She says, getting up off the couch. She walks over to the door and grabs her sneakers from the pile of shoes and puts them on.

"Don't call me that." Malik says.

"Whatever." Ashling replies, yanking open the door. She steps out onto the wrap-around concrete porch and almost slams the door shut, but Malik catches it before it can do so,

The two walk off the porch, Malik following Ashling. The blonde girl grumbles half obstinacies under her breath as she leads him over to an opening in the trees.

"What's this lead to?" Malik asks, looking down the steeply sloping path surrounded by trees.

"The bottomland and the river." Ashling replies. "Watch your step." She says warningly as she carefully starts down the path, her blue eyes paying careful attention to where she's stepping.

Malik continues to follow, but refuses to watch where he's stepping.

Not five minutes later the little gravel that's on the path makes Malik slip, and he falls forward right into Ashling. The two then roll down the rest of the hill and land in the soft grass at the bottom after going over countless numbers of rocks and fallen branches.

"You idiot." Ashling groans, kicking Malik in the side while laying in her landing position. "I told you to watch your step." She says, sitting up. Her strawberry blonde hair all messed up with twigs and dirt in it.

Malik's not much better off. His blonde hair is also completely messed up and has twigs and dirt in it.

"Don't kick me." Malik snaps, getting up, his temper already flaring.

Ashling grits her teeth and stands up, her anger barely contained. In her mind she plots on how to kill the blonde boy runs through her mind. "Its your fault we fell down the hill, not mine."

"What does that have to do with kicking me!" Malik growls.

Ashling glares at Malik, blue eyes icy. "You deserved it for knocking me over."

A name calling war soon ensues.

"Bitch."

"Retard."

"Stupid."

"Jerk!"

"Know-it-all!"

"Ass!"

The two stand at the bottom of the hill, glaring at each other as they share insults, growing steadily louder as they go. Ten minutes later, after going through even insult they can think of, the two are finally out of insults.

Ashling storms off toward the river, grumbling about idiotic morons. Malik glares after her and then turns and starts back up the path, determined to get away from the psychotic blonde girl.

Of course, he once again slips and falls, this time hitting his head.

Ashling turns around when she hears him fall, fully prepared to tease him for falling,  _'God, he's worse than me!'_ Her smirk changes to a worried look when she sees him sit up and gingerly touch the back of his head.  _'Oh god, is he bleeding?'_

Ashling's motherly instinct kicks in and she jogs back over to Malik and kneels down. "Hey Ishtar, are you alright." She asks, resting a hand on his arm.

Malik shoves her arm away. "I'm fine." He snaps.

Ashling's worried look promptly evaporates and changes to a glare. "Well sorry for worrying! Next time I'll just leave you here to die!"

"I'd rather die than be married to you!"

Something inside Ashling snaps and she shoves him to the ground roughly, before running up the path, her sensitivity level already gone off.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After that incident, their arguing grows worse to the point that whenever the two are in the same room, you can feel the tension in the air.

What really made it worse is when they have to decide where Malik is going to sleep. Ishizu has already taken the fourth bedroom, and the computer room is too small for Malik to stay in. That leaves only one option.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"He is  _not_ sleeping in my room." Ashling says deadpan. "There is  _no **way**_ he is sleeping in my room. Why can't he sleep in the fourth bedroom with his sister? Or maybe the basement would be better."

Ashling's mother gives her a 'look'. "Ashling, you know that the fourth bedroom is too small for two people. And he will  _not_ be sleeping in the basement."

Ashling huffs and crosses her arms over her chest.

"Ashling, you have the biggest room. There's plenty of space in there for the two of you. More than enough room, really." Her mom continues.

Ashling's little sister, Cheyenne, grins. "Ha ha, you got stuck with him in your room."

Ashling glares at her little sister. "Shut up, Cheyenne."

Giggling, the brown-haired girl gets up from where she's sitting on the stairs and runs up them.

"Bitch…" Ashling mutters under her breath.

"Ashling…" Her mother says warningly.

Ashling sighs. "Fine. But I really,  _really_ don't like this."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling cranks up her Linkin Park CD using the remote that came with her boom box. Singing along quietly, she turns back to what she's doing. Then Malik comes into the room, scowling.

"Will you turn this crap down?" He yells over the loud music. All he gets is an icy glare in reply before the blonde girl goes back to what she's doing at her desk.

Curious, Malik walks across the room and looks down at what she's doing. He catches a glimpse of a clay cat she's working on before Ashling glares at him again.

"Do you mind?" She asks. "I don't particularly like people viewing my work before it's done."

Malik grumbles, "whatever" under his breath. "Your mom sent me up. It's time for dinner." He says, and then quickly leaves the room.

Ashling carefully sets aside the tools she's working with and then places a cover over the clay sculpture. Then she lays a thin piece of black fabric over top the clear plastic covering. After that she picks up the remote and hit's the stop button and then the power button. She stretches, trying to get the stiffness out of her shoulders and lower bad, and then she stands up, brushing off her black jeans.

Ashling walks out of her room, making sure she closes the door behind her.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Downstairs Ishizu and Ashling's mom are discussing something by the stove. Malik and Cheyenne are already sitting down, the brunette girl staring incredulously at the blonde-haired boy.

Ashling raises an eyebrow when she sees Malik's large bowl of salad and play with a cut up apple, carrots, broccoli, and ranch dressing, and a roll on it. She quickly continues on though, trying to ignore him, and goes and fills her plate with plenty of chicken, two ribs, and two rolls. She smiles up at her dad. "The best ever, right dad?"

Her dad chuckles. "That's right."

Grinning, Ashling walks over to the table, quickly realizing that the only place left to sit is beside Malik. 'I hate my family… except daddy because he agrees with me on this whole thing.' She almost smirks when she remembers how angry her dad was when he heard the news. 'I do wish he had actually traumatized Ishtar.'

Malik doesn't even look up when Ashling sits down beside him. Instead he just munches on the pieces of apple.

' _She's plotting something.'_  He thinks to himself. _'I just know she is. I'll probably get locked out or get locking into something in the near future.'_ Malik glances up at his sister and Ashling's mom before his gaze returns to his food. ' _It's those two I should really be worried about. They're determined to make this thing work. If it wasn't for mother…'_

Ishizu rests a hand on her brothers arm, who looks up, lilac eyes startled. "Huh?"

"Are you alright?" She asks.

Malik nods. "I'm fine, Ishizu."


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3: School_

Ashling walks into the computer room early on Wednesday morning and stops short when she sees Malik sitting on the couch with his laptop.

"What are you doing in here?" Ashling asks, calmly walking over and sitting down in the dark gray computer chair.

Malik raises sleepy lilac eyes to the strawberry blonde girl. "Shut up, Phoenix. It's too early to listen to your crap." And then he goes right back to what he's doing.

Ashling sighs and then turns on the computer to go about her normal morning schedule.

On his laptop, Malik is trying to get a hold of Tama on IM. Finally, he does.

_Tama! Thank Ra!_

Hey Malik, how are you holding up?

_I hate it here!_

Are you sure you're not overreacting? Surely it's not that bad.

_Tama, I hate her. She hates me. Her mom, her sister, and my sister are insane. Her dad wants to kill me. HOW AM I OVEREACTING!_

Ryou logs onto his computer at this time.

_Ryou! Help! Tama won't listen to me!_

**How did you know it was me?**

_Who else do I know that has a partial nickname of 'demon bunny'._

Malik, what you're going through can't even compare to the crap that's been going on here. And it's not even the usual crap with the three psycho's!

_Now I'm afraid. What's going on?_

**The shadows are acting up.**

And Yugi's a girl.

Malik can't help it. He cracks up laughing at Tama's words. Ashling glances at the blonde boy in confusion and then quickly goes back to reading when she remembers that she hates him.

Malik tries to calm himself down and then goes back to what he's doing.

Malik, shut up. I know you're laughing! It's really not funny.

**Actually, it was hilarious. You should have seen the look on the pharaoh and his hikari's faces**!

Bakura! Give Ryou back the computer! (Tama continues to yell at the crazy spirit from off the computer.)

**You're no fun.**

_Please tell me you were joking about the whole Yugi thing._

Wish I could. Yami and Yugi got bored and decided to have a non-lethal shadow battle. Yami summoned Dark Magician Girl and then he and Yugi got into some strange conversation about having children. Yume made some comment on Mana always screwing up spell and 'mishearing' things.

_How very… interesting._

"Malik! Ashling!" Mrs. Phoenix yells. "It's time to go!"

_Guys, I gotta run. I've got school_

Poor you. Talk to you later.

_Keep me posted. Later._

Malik quickly logs out and shuts down his laptop. Then he goes downstairs right behind Ashling.

The two get downstairs to see Cheyenne sitting boredly on the couch beside Ashling's mom and Ishizu standing by the door.

' _I don't like the evil glint in her eyes…'_ Malik thinks wearily, looking at his sister.

"Come here you two, I have something to tell you."

' _I **really** don't like that evil glint in her eyes.' _Malik decides.

Malik and Ashling step curiously over to Ishizu, Malik to the left of Ashling. Within seconds, Ishizu pulls something from behind her back and snaps it onto the two's wrists. (Ashling's right and Malik's left.)

Malik and Ashling look down in shock at the handcuffs binding them together. And they're not ordinary handcuffs. They are pink.

"Ishizu, what is this?" Malik exclaims.

"You two need to learn how to get along. I know that the two of you have the same classes, so this works out perfectly." Ishizu says nonchalantly.

Ashling twitches, glaring at the handcuffs. "I really hate this." A thought crosses her mind regarding the schedule. "This isn't going to work. PE isn't co-ed."

"We'll inform the school." Mrs. Phoenix says. "Now, I believe Ishizu has volunteered tp drive you down to catch the bud." She catches sight of the mortified look on Ashling and Malik's faces. "You two can drive tomorrow."

"We have to ride the bus like this!" Ashling asks hysterically. "It's bad enough we have to go to  _school_ like this! I'll never be able to face my friends again!" 'Holly's going to have a field day with this…'

Cheyenne rolls her eyes and stands up. "It's, like, not that big of a deal."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one stuck to the jerk!" Ashling snaps.

"No arguing." Mrs. Phoenix says firmly. "You all need to go catch the bus. Go."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Less than 10 minutes later the three are getting on the bus. Cheyenne is the first one on, and she immediately heads toward the back to sit with her friends. Ashling makes Malik sit dwn in the first seat on the right side and then sits down as well.

A brown haired boy looks curiously at the two. "Why aren't you sitting with me, friend?"

Ashling lifts up her right arm, which the one linked to Malik. "His older sister thought it'd be funny to handcuff us together."

The brunette snickers, finding this very funny.

Ashling scowls. "Just… shut up, Mike."

Beside her Malik sits there doodling fiercely on a piece of notebook paper muttering under his breath. "Stupid sister… stupid Mariku… Curse you pharaoh!" He yells, stabbing the doodle of Yami.

"Are you sure he's mentally sane?" Mike asks.

Ashling sighs. "I'm positive he's one-hundred percent insane."

"Well that's comforting…" Mike comments.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling and Malik have trouble for the rest of the day. First with the teachers and then with their peers. They've both found out that it's impossible to ignore someone when you're chained to them.

Finally, second lunch arrives.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling sighs and she sits down at the table, Malik soon following suit.

"Hey Ash!" A girl with shoulder-length brown hair with a reddish tint to it says, setting down her plate of cafeteria food. "Ooo, who's the cute blonde?"

Ashling rolls her eyes. "This moron is Malik Ishtar."

Her friend grins and sits down opposite of Ashling. "If he's such a moron, then why is he sitting with us?"

"Holly, we're stuck together." Ashling says, gesturing to the handcuffs.

Holly cracks up laughing, tears springing to her eyes. "Oh  _kami_! Wait 'til the rest of the gang hears about this!"

"Hears about what?" A girl with long, straight blonde hair questions, sitting down with her bag lunch. "Who's the guy?"

Ashling sighs. "Riley, I'll introduce him when everyone gets here. That way, I won't have to go through the introduction twenty-billion unwanted times."

"Problem," Riley's golden-blonde haired brother says, setting down his plate of cafeteria food. "Mizu said he'll be late."

Ashling rolls her eyes again. "That punk is always late… fine, I'll introduce him to everyone except that baka."

Malik looks between the four, puzzled by some of their choice of words.

Less than five minutes later everyone except 'the baka', as he has been dubbed, is sitting down at the table.

There's Kaylie, a girl with curly blonde hair who is slightly overweight; Max, Riley's brother; Jiro, a brown-haired boy; Tabby, a dark blonde-haired girl; Chris, another blonde boy; Mike, Ashling's brown-haired friend from the bus; Riley; Holly; Malik; and Ashling.

Max, Tabby, Chris, and Mike sit at one end of the table discussing sports while the rest of the group gets into their usual Anime conversation. Malik and Riley mainly listen though.

"Hello fellow Anime otaku! Did you miss me?" A very familiar sounding boy questions.

Malik looks up from his food and chokes on it when he sees who it is.

Damian jumps back, staring at Malik in shock. "What are you doing here! Where's Tama! Where's someone sane! Oh  _kami_ , we're all going to die!" He then proceeds to fall on the floor, feigning a faint.

Malik manages to correctly swallow his food. "Shut up, pretty boy." He rasps.

Riley nudges Damian with her foot. "Hey Damian, you still alive down there?"

"I don't know." Comes the black-and-purple haired boy's reply. "Am I?"

Everyone else sweat drops and then the rest of lunch goes on like normal, with loud Anime conversations, squealing from Holly and Kaylie, and more theatrics from Damian. All of which is completely normal.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Things take a down-turn in fourth period, which is PE for both Ashling and Malik. Apparently neither of the coaches are willing to listen to the fact that Ishizu handcuffed them together for a day to make them "learn to get along". That plan of Ishizu's has horribly failed so far.

So naturally, when they get home they practically beg Ishizu to remove the "damn pink things from Hell", but Ishizu refuses, saying that they will be stuck together for one full day, which means they will be stuck together until morning. Of course, Ishizu is nice enough to un-bind them so they can go to the bathroom and put on pajama's, but other than that…

Which is why Ashling and Malik are both sitting on Ashling's bed. Malik is reading a manga he stole from Tama and Ashling is three-way chatting with Damian and Jiro on the phone.

"No, Holly specifically asked for sapphire blue." Ashling patiently says. "Damian, I said  _sapphire_ blue… no, that's not normal blue! Sapphire,  _sapphire_!" She pauses for a moment, listening to the boys. "Okay, Holly wants sapphire blue- shuddup, both of you- Riley said golden yellow, Kaylie wants light blue, Jiro you get purple- okay, fine. Damian, you get purple and Jiro you can have dark green. I want red. No! Not scarlet- Damian! Shut up! No, that is not funny! No-! Don't make me hang up on you! I'm serious- dude, if you don't knock that off-"

Ashling cuts herself off and listens for a moment, her eyes growing wide. "No way. No effing way. Tell me you are  _not_ joking." She laughs at something one of the guys say. "Oh  _yes_! I could just hug you right now, Damian. I really could. Shut up, Jiro. That's really getting old. Now, getting back on subject- no.  _No_! Shut up! Anyway, I want red. Fire red, not scarlet, not dark red, not red-orange. Fire red. Damian, shut up. No! I'm hanging up on you now.  _No_! Goodbye. No, I said! Bye!" Ashling turns off the phone before Jiro or Damian can say anything else.

"Time for dinner you two." Ishizu says, poking her head into the doorway.

"Coming, Ishizu." Ashling says cheerfully. "Lets go, blondie."

Malik glares at her. "I told you to stop calling me that! You're a blonde too you know."

"Don't care." Ashling replies. "Lets go. I'm starving."


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4: Café_

The rest of the school week passes by fairly quickly. Ashling and Malik are still stubbornly ignoring one another like always, and fail horribly like they have been. They don't argue quite as much as they did during the first two weeks before school, but they do still argue. The tension is still high when they're in the same room as well.

Ashling's odd group of friends have accepted Malik into their group (although they still don't know why he's here… except for Damian), so he now has an official spot at their lunch table. Whether or not this is a good thing has yet to be determined as Malik has yet to get used to their randomness, hyperactivity, Anime otaku-ness, or Damian's extreme dramatics. Which is why Malik is currently looking at the black-and-purple haired boy in shock after his little outburst at the lunch table. Again.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I got it!" Damian yells, plunking himself down at the table. "It's all set up and ready to roll! Who's ready?"

Ashling, Holly, and Riley all three jump up and 'mob-hug' their friend without even thinking.

"You so totally rock, dude!" Ashling and Holly yell in unison.

Damian grins. "Thank you, thank you. Come by tomorrow so I can show you around. You know where to go."

Anyone not an 'Anime otaku', except for Max, listen on with growing confusion.

"You've got everything?" Riley asks, a slight blush on her face as she lets go of Damian.

"Everything." Damian agrees, nodding.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Malik wakes up on Saturday morning at 11:30 to find that Ashling has already left to do whatever it is she has planned with her fellow Anime otaku. This means he has a peaceful morning and afternoon without Ashling around to worry about.

He eats a quick brunch and then goes outside to spend his afternoon out in the warm sun.

Meanwhile, with Ashling.

Ashling had gotten up early that morning so she could watch her favorite Saturday morning Anime shows like Tokyo Mew Mew. Right after that she grabbed a breakfast drink and hit the road, going to the place she's meeting Damian, Jiro, Riley, Kaylie, Holly, and Max. She drives past the school and pulls up into the Roses parking lot. She drives around to the left of the building right over to a small (compared to the large store) dark-colored building with Japanese (shrine-style) dark gray shingles.

Several cars- Riley's yellow VW bug, Damian's dark purple truck with silver flames, and Holly's tie-dye Nova SS- are already parked outside.

A feeling of giddyness wells up inside of her as she pulls up beside Riley's car in her small black Mazda. Ashling pulls up the parking brake and shifts to neutral before turning off the car and taking her feet off the clutch and brake. She quickly takes off her seatbelt, opens the door, and gets out of the car. Ashling shuts the car door and jogs up to the door of the building, noting with satisfaction that it's designed similarly to a Japanese sliding door, and then opens it.

"You're here!" Holly happily yells, setting down the maneki neko she was looking at.

Ashling smiles at her friends while she looks around at the place. The walls are painted a shadow black color. The color fades to white at the area's around light fixtures. The ceiling is the same way. Looking down, she sees that the carpet is the same shadow black color.

"What do you think, Ash?" Damian asks, cheerfully carrying an armload of boxes into the 'top level'. "I thought the repetitive shadow black would be a bit much, but I have to say it turned out pretty well."

"The bean bags are a nice touch." Ashling comments, amusement laced in her voice.

Max points to the pillow he's sitting on. "We've got pillows too, for you beyond obsessed Anime fans."

Jiro throws a blue pillow at Max. "They're good for more than just sitting on!"

Holly follows suit and slams a pillow into Jiro's head at the same time that Max does.

"Abuse! Abuse!" Jiro yells to the laughter of his friends.

"Come on guys, I need you to try on the uniforms before we open Monday. And you need to familiarize yourself with this place." Damian says. "Now, Riley's is first."

Riley gets up and takes the yellow box from the top of the stack. The Kaylie gets hers, and then Max, then Jiro, then Holly, and then Ashling. The only box left is the purple one Damian is holding, which is obviously his own.

"Alright, this way to our back room!" Damian says cheerfully, pushing through a door right behind him, barely distinguishable from the wall.

The others follow him into the slightly brighter room which is done up in faded light purple.

"The changing rooms are over there." Damian says, pointing to two doors. "There's only two, sadly. The light green one is for guys and the light pink is girls. Sexist, yes. I'm sorry. It's not my fault. I didn't have enough time to get this room painted."

"Me first!" Holly shouts, running into the one with the pink door.

Jiro rolls his eyes. "I'll go."

Five minutes later Jiro comes out dressed in a shadow black shirt and pants and a dark green vest. Max goes in after him.

"Looks good." Kaylie comments. "I can't wait to see what our uniforms look like!"

'Our' meaning 'the girls' of course.

Five minutes after that Holly comes out dressed in her uniform. It's half-designed similarly to a maid uniform, but there are quite a few differences. (Those of you who watch Tokyo Mew Mew, think similarly to the girl's working outfits.)

Holly's uniform consists of a shadow black semi-off-the-shoulder shirt that ends an inch above her belly button. The skirt is also shadow black and ends around three or four inches above her knees. Both the shirt and skirt have sapphire blue lace trim. Overtop of the skirt is a simple white apron with a large pocket on the right side. A little shadow black maids 'hat' is on her head. It also has sapphire blue trim.

The others go and change. The whole thing takes nearly a half hour.

Riley's uniform consists of a sunny yellow off-the-shoulder shirt and a skirt that ends an inch above her knees. The lace trim is shadow black and the pocket on her white apron is on the right.

Max's uniform is a shadow black shirt and pants and a light green vest.

Kaylie's uniform has a light blue shirt that has a v-neck collar (with no lace) and a light blue skirt that ends a little above her knees. A white apron is overtop the skirt and the trim on her uniform is the shadow black lace.

Damian's uniform is made up of a purple shirt and pants and a shadow black vest.

Ashling's uniform consists of an off-the-shoulder shadow black shirt that ends two and a half inches above her belly button. Her shadow black skirt is knee-length and also has the white apron overtop it. Her lace trim is fire red.

"So, do you approve?" Damian asks.

"I know I approve!" Holly says happily, spinning around in a circle so her skirt twirls around.

The others nod in agreement.

Ashling grins. "Looks like you did something right for once, Damian."

Damian rolls his eyes. "Gee, thanks. C'mon guys. I'm gonna give ya'll the grand tour."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling doesn't get home until 8 o'clock that night, having goofed off with her friends all day. First they celebrated at the café the're opening (after taking off their uniforms) by making coffee and hot chocolate. Then they went bowling for an hour or two. After that they drove 45 minutes away out to the mall to have a little shopping spree. During their time at the mall they ate at the K&W Cafeteria there. Then they drove a short distance away to the movie theatre, where they had to split up between two movies playing at the same time. Then they all headed back home.

All-in-all, it was an exhausting but fun day. By the time Ashling gets home, she is almost unbelievably hyper from her tiredness, having too much caffeine, and from being with her goofy friends all day. She's so hyper that she ignores her hatred of Malik for the rest of the night, spending the time watching Anime and reading fan fictions on the computer.

A week or so passes, taking with it the grand opening of the Shadow Café, which has already become a popular after school hangout.

Ashling's family has become very curious about the job she now has. But Ashling refuses to tell. So, they talk Malik into finding out what it is. Normally Malik wouldn't even consider doing something like this, but he's rather curious as well. Which is why, on Wednesday after school, a week after Ashling began her job, Malik is follow Ashling discreetly on his motorcycle.

He watches in surprise as Ashling pulls into the Roses parking lot just down the road from the school. His gaze lands on the darkly colored café, his eyes lingering on the sign for a moment. 'Shadow Café, huh? I'll never be able to escape the shadows, will I?'

Malik watches as Ashling parks her black car next to a tie-dyed one and then as she walks in. He sits outside on his motorcycle for a while to make sure Ashling's not just meeting one of her crazy friends. When she doesn't come out, Malik gets off his motorcycle, takes off his helmet, and makes sure he has his keys before he walks into the café.

Inside, he looks around, surprised by the amount of people already here and somewhat impressed by the decorating job.

"Hello and welcome to the Shadow Care! How- Malik!"

Malik looks at the black and blue clad girl in front of him, barely surprised to see that it's Holly.

The reddish-brown haired girl grins. "You're looking for Ash, aren't you? Here, I'll show you to your seat and let Ash take care of ya." Holly says. "C'mon."

Holly leads Malik over to a small table with a lilac colored cushion.

"This is Ashling's section, she'll be with ya in a sec." Grinning, Holly goes off to get Ashling and to make sure she hasn't caught the kitchen on fire trying to bake again.

She finds Damian and Ashling in the kitchen. Ashling has ducked behind the counter, flour on her nose and in her braided hair. Damian has just finished combating flames from the stove with one of the many fire extinguishers in the kitchen.

Holly sweat drops. "Ano… Ash-chan."

Ashling peeks over the counter, stormy blue eyes wide. "N-nani?"

"Maybe it's be best if you stick to waiting tables." Holly says, looking at the not just burnt, but charcoal rolls.

"I completely agree." Damian says faintly. "You, my dearest Ashling, are a potential fire disaster waiting to happen."

Ashling sighs, looking down at the ground. "I know… I'll just… go wait tables now. You can takes the rolls from my paycheck." She says, dusting off her uniform. She looks up from the floor and gives the two a sad smile before walking out of the kitchen.

Damian and Holly wait until she's gone before they start talking while cleaning up the mess.

"So what's going on that made you come back here in search of Ash?" Damian asks, dumping the charcoal rolls into the trash.

Holly dampens a washcloth and begins wiping down the counter. "Well, someone came here looking for Ashling…"

"The Egyptian." Damian states knowingly.

Holly looks at Damian, brown eyes questioning. "He's Egyptian?"

"Half." Damian replies, arranging some already made rolls on a tray before moving on to arranging a tray of cookies.

The two are silent for a minute, both working on their own thing in the kitchen. Damian sticks the rolls and cookies into the oven after making sure it's set to the right temperature. "Holly, I'm going to tell you something that Ashling will most likely kill me for saying… How well can you keep a secret?"

"Depends on the type of secret. It it's life threatening or if someone could get hurt, then I won't keep it. Anything else, then I can easily keep it." Holly replies after a moment of thought.

Damian glances around, making sure no one else is in the room. Then he turns to Holly, emerald green eyes serious. "Ashling is betrothed to Malik."

Holly gasps. "What? How did you find this out? How is this possible?"

Damian sighs. "Malik's cousin is one of my best friends. She told me after I bugged her about why psycho boy was here for hours."

"How do you know it's Ashling? Couldn't it be someone else?" Holly asks, trying to work her mind around the fact.

"Because Ashling and him were handcuffed together." Damian replies. "Tama said that their mothers came up with this when they were young. Mrs. Ishtar wrote it down somewhere and Ishizu found it."

Holly frowns. "It's no wonder they're so determined to hate one another… It takes too much for Ashling to really hate someone. She gives people too many second chances sometimes."

"Her major weakness." Damian agrees whole-heartedly.

"You can tell they're curious about one another, but…"

Damian decides to finish her sentence, knowing what she means. "They're both stubborn as hell. They'll get over it sometime. Ash can be way too curious for her own-"

"Guys, I need some rolls and cookies out here pronto!" Riley interrupts, pushing open the door. "And Holly, you've got people in your section who need served. Ashling can't take care of them all."

"I'm coming." Holly says, tossing the towel she was using into a basket. "Talk to you later Damian."


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5: Problems_

Tama and Ryou awaken to the sound of their phone ringing and the three Darks making a racket.

"They're worse than three year olds…" Ryou grumbles tiredly.

"Urg…" Tama groans, trying to tug the blankets up over her head. "It's your turn."

"Don't wanna. You do it."

"HIKARI! WILL YOU ANSWER THE RA-DAMNED PHONE ALREADY!" Yume yells.

Cursing her once-sane yami, Tama rolls over and picks up the phone halfway through the final ring. "Hello?" She sleepily asks.

She bolts up into a sitting position when she hears Yugi crying on the other end. "Yugi? Yugi, what's wrong?" Tama listens for a moment, a frown slowly spreading across her face.

Ryou sits up as well, worry showing clearly in his gentle brown eyes.

"Calm down Yugi. Me and Ryou will be over in a minute… Bring the girls? I don't think I have- Okay, Yugi. I'll get them." Tama hangs up the phone and runs a hand through her bangs.

"What's wrong?" Ryou asks.

"I really don't know." Tama replies, worry evident in her voice. "Yugi wants us to come over ASAP and he said something about wanting the others girls there."

"But what about the yami's?" Ryou asks.

Tama pushes back the covers and gets out of the bed. "I'll handle them." The younger Light says, a small smirk on her face. "You get dressed and hunt down the keys."

Ryou nods to her before Tama leaves the room.

Tama walks down the upstairs hall to the stairs and then goes down them. The sight that greets her in the living room is one of Marik, Yume, and Bakura tangled up together playing their own version of  _Twister_. She raises and eyebrow, but makes no comment on their choice of activity. 'Well, at least this explains why Yume was yelling at me to get the phone…'

"Who was that on the phone, hikari?" Yume asks, carefully sending a tendril of shadow magic at the spinner. "Marik, left knee green."

"It was Yugi." Tama replies, watching as Marik struggles to get his right knee on green without falling over. "He needs me and Ryou to go over there."

Bakura almost glares at Tama. "I am not going over there and be made fun of by the pharaoh."

Tama rolls her eyes, remembering the last time they went over there and Yume and Marik dumped red cool-aide on the snowy-white haired Tomb Robber's head. "Well good, because you three are staying here." She almost smirks at the surprised looks on their faces. "Yume, I'm leaving you in charge. I swear if we come back to find this place in complete disorder or blown up you will  ** _never_** be left alone again." Tama gives them the darkest look she possibly can, which turns out pretty good for her being a Light.

All three Darks shudder. Well, no one ever said a Light can't be evil.

Ryou walks down the stairs and sighs when he sees the yami's. He's now dressed in his blue and white striped shirt and light blue jeans.

"Meet you in the car." Tama says cheerfully, running past him back up the stairs to change out of her pajama's.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Less than a half hour later, Mai, Serenity, Téa, Tama, Ryou, and Joey are all at the game shop trying to comfort Yugi, who's crying in Yami's arms. Poor Yami has the most lost expression on his face.

"Have you been able to get anything out of him, Yami?" Téa asks, puzzled by her friend's crying.

Despite the fact that Mana somehow managed to turn Yugi into a girl, the gang still refers to him as a guy, since he acts and looks the same (except for longer hair and a female form…) and since Mana promised to change him back (although it'll take time and research).

Yami shakes his head 'no.' "He left a little while ago, came home and locked himself in our room. The next thing I know he's attached to my waist crying his eyes out."

Mai looks at Yugi thoughtfully for a moment. "Yami, where's you room? Joey and I will go up and look for anything unusual."

"Up the stairs to the end of the hall." Yami murmurs distractedly, gently stroking Yugi's black and red hair.

Mai and Joey both get up and go upstairs to Yugi and Yami's room. Ryou then sits down in Mai's spot, which is right beside Tama.

"Has anything weird been happening lately? Well, weirder than usual?" Serenity asks.

Yami frowns, thinking back through the past several weeks since Mana turned Yugi into a girl. "Nothing too unusual. Although he has been acting weird these past few days. It started about the time Mana popped by to visit."

A shriek from upstairs catches everyone's attention.

"Apparently they found something." Tama murmurs.

Seconds later Mai and Joey rush down the stairs, both of them pale.

"What's wrong?" Yami asks, tightening his hold on Yugi.

Joey hands something to Yami. "You might want to take a look at dis."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"He's what?" Yume asks in shock, ignoring both Bakura and Marik who are choking on their drinks.

"Pregnant. Yugi's pregnant." Tama says faintly, leaning against the counter for support. "Mai and Joey found the test in his and Yami's bathroom. Apparently Mana said something to Yugi a few days ago."

Ryou walks up behind Tama and wraps his arms around her waist. "Téa fainted when Mai told us. Yami looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something."

"Damn him." Bakura mutters. "Here I was hoping the pharaoh's line would end with him."

Yume rolls her eyes. "Bakura, any of our children would be next in line for pharaoh."

Bakura curses. "Damn you, Yami! Why won't you let me win for once!"

The others sweat drop.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Several days later Joey comes to Tama with a problem. The two meet at a small café in town.

"So, what's your problem, Joey?" Tama asks.  _'Ra, I sound like a psychologist or something.'_

Joey groans, his head hitting the table. "Well, ya see, Mai's been actin' kind a weird lately. I mean, we're not an official couple or nothing, so it's not dad odd dat she's datin' some guy."

Tama raises an eyebrow. "I thought you two were dating. What happened?"

Joey sighs and lifts his head off the table, honey brown eyes sad. "We got started talking about da age difference between us and things just kind a… went 'splat'."

"I'm guessing the fact that you're still in high school came into play." Tama says.

Joey nods. "Yeah, it did. Tama, I don't know what I'm gonna do! I think…" He swallows and nervously looks around. "I think I love her."

"Then tell her." Tama firmly says. "Tell her and see what happens. Age doesn't matter and it's really not that much of a difference. You're already eighteen and this is your last year of high school."

Joey looks at Tama hopefully. "You think that me tellin' her…?"

Tama smiles. "It'll work out, Joey. And if she turns ya down, tell me and I'll kick her butt for ya!"

Joey laughs, the familiar light coming back into his eyes. "I'll remember dat. Thanks Tama."

"It's no problem. Now, whaddya say we finish our tea and hit the arcade?" She asks.

"Sounds like a plan to me!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Yume rifles through one of the drawers in the kitchen, searching for a close pin to keep the bag of chips she, Bakura, and Marik had opened shut. Instead, she finds something completely different.

"'Sporks'." The once-spirit girl reads in an amused tone. "What's a spork? Sounds funny…" Curiosity getting the better of her, Yume opens the box and pulls out one of the strange looking utensils.

"What's that?" Marik asks, peering over his cousin's shoulder. "'Sporks'." He reads. "What's a spork?"

"No idea." Yume replies.

"Looks like a torture device." Bakura comments, appearing out of nowhere from behind Marik. "What do you think?"

Yume shrugs and puts the spork back into the box. "No clue. It is neat looking though…"

"I want one!" Marik yells, trying to grab the box of sporks from Yume.

"No, they're mine!" Yume yells, clutching the box to her chest as she evades Marik.

The kitchen erupts into chaos as Marik begins chasing Yume around in an effort to get the sporks. Then Bakura joins in, on nobody's side but his own, and manages to grab the box. Laughing evilly, the silvery-white haired yami runs out of the kitchen. Yume and Marik immediately give chase, each determined to get the box of sporks for themselves.

They keep this up for a while before the box tears in half and the sporks scatter everywhere. The yami's then scramble to pick up the sporks.

Now armed with the sporks, the three yami's begin an all-out spork war. Yes, you read correctly. A spork war.

When Tama and Ryou returns home form their weekly outing to the grocery store, they find little plastic pieces of spork littering the floor and three worn out Dark's crashed in the living room with broken and non-broken sporks around them.

"I told you we should have hidden them better." Ryou says. "Now we'll be stepping on pieces of spork for weeks."

Tama shrugs. "Well, if it keeps them from completely destroying the house."

"That's true…"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Mokuba sighs as he sets aside the video game control for his PS2. Lately, he has had nothing to do. The company is running smoothly and Kaiba Land is in complete working order. The only thing new is the Duel Disk system Seto is designing, wanting one that's of lighter weight and better quality.

Since Seto is working on it on his own, Mokuba has virtually nothing to do except stay at home and play video games. But even that gets boring once it's all you do for nearly the entire summer.

Mokuba sighs heavily and walks out of the game room, wanting to go to his room to draw, listen to music, and try to work on his own Duel Monsters deck for a while.

In his room he easily finds a few sheets of blank paper, some pencils, and his box of unorganized Duel Monster cars. Then he turns on his music and sits down at his desk to work.

Mokuba looks thoughtfully at the blank piece of paper laying in front of him just waiting to be drawn on. _'What should I draw…? I could draw something for Seto. A Blue-Eyes maybe? No, I've already drawn a bunch for him. Maybe Kuriboh for Yugi? No, Yami can summon up the real thing…'_ He taps one of his pencils on the desk, trying his best to think of what to draw.  _'I know! I'll draw a puppy for Serenity!'_

And so, Mokuba sets to work on drawing a puppy for Serenity. When he finishes he sets down his pencil and studies it.  _'Hmm… it's missing something. But what? A background! That's it!'_ Mokuba determinedly picks up his pencil and begins drawing the background in.

When he's finally done, he has a picture of a playful golden retriever puppy with dog bones, a toy, and a few Duel Monster cards laying on the floor around it. Writing on the collar reads "Joey", which is there to get a laugh out of Serenity and annoy Joey.

Smiling Mokuba sets the picture aside only to find that he has come back to the problem he faced before. Complete. Boredom.

Now Mokuba sighs and leans back in his chair. Then he sets his pencil on his nose and balances it there.  _'Seto and Tama both say that the easiest way to get rid of boredom is to find something productive to do. But that's the problem- I can't find anything to do.'_  He sits back up, dropping the pencil carelessly onto his desk.  _'I guess I could try to think of what our next project could be. We don't need any more places for people to duel- KaibaLand and the streets and stuff are good enough for that.'_ Mokuba glances at his box of cards.  _'What we need is a place for future duelists. A… a… duelist academy or something.'_ His eyes light up.  _'That's perfect! I'll run it by Tama first to see what she thinks and then show it to Seto!'_

Now that he has found something to do, Mokuba pulls a sheet of notebook paper from his desk and begins writing down any ideas he gets for his duelist academy idea. Then he begins sketching idea's for different dorms and possible titles for them.

When he's done, he finds it early enough to call Tama and run the idea by her. Tama arrives at the mansion a half hour later and the two go sit in the living room to talk.

Tama looks over Mokuba's ideas, lilac eyes wide. Mokuba watches her, fidgeting nervously.

Tama sets the papers aside gently. "Mokuba, this has to be the greatest idea you have ever had. You've had some good ones, but this is the best of the best. This is exactly what we need- an academy for future duelists." She smiles brightly at Mokuba. "I think Seto will really like this."

Mokuba smiles as well. "Thanks Tama."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: September

Ashling stares blankly at the mountains from high on her perch in her tree. The river runs loudly behind her, higher than usual from the storm they had the day before. Wind whistles through the trees, making the branch she's on sway and her hair blow wildly around her. The sky is a dark stormy gray and moisture hangs in the air. All the signs on an on-coming storm.

Ashling's dressed in a simple black t0shirt and black jeans. In both her ears are black rose earrings. Her nails are also painted black.

"Phoenix!" Malik yells up at her, his own pale blonde hair whipping around him. "Phoenix, get down here! It's time for dinner!"

Ashling looks down, blue eyes dull, and nods. Then she easily slips off the branch and falls at least ten feet to the ground. Malik almost rushes forward to catch her, but something holds him back. Ashling lands unharmed, her knees bent and her palms flat on the ground. She says nothing as she walks past Malik, her head bent.

Malik frowns. 'Something's wrong here. There's only one way to find out what's going on.'

0-0-0-0-0

Damian raises an eyebrow. "you mean you actually want to know something about Ashling? What inspired this sudden change and why?"

Riley elbows Damian in the stomach and then sets down the tray she was carrying. "Damian, it's September. Shut up." She hops up onto the counter and turns to Malik. "Several years ago there was an accident." She says softly as Jiro and Max join them. "Ashling's twin brother went on a trip to Paris with two of his friends. They were driving back home from New York City when they were hit by a drunk driver. His best friend's dad got a broken arm, one of his best friends got a mild concussion and a few broken ribs, and his other best friend was in a coma for two months…"

"Her brother never made it." Max whispers, her throat clenching.

Malik's heart twists in his chest at the very thought of losing someone in his family.

"Ashling always slips into a depression around this time. She'll wear nothing but black for the next week and won't laugh or smile." Jiro says sadly.

Damian nods. "Nothing we do can ever snap her out of it. And even though she doesn't act it, she mourns him all year. She hasn't been the same since he passed away."

"I remember her pulling all sorts of crazy stunts and how she was a complete chatter box once you go to know her." Max comments. "But now…" He looks seriously at Malik. "Keep a close eye on her. She tends to get really reckless around this time. You don't have to worry about her driving though, because she won't go anywhere near a vehicle unless you drag her."

Damian points out to the people seated after a moment of silence. "Alright, chatter time is over. Get back to work."

Jiro and Max both immediately rush off to serve people while Riley carefully slips off the counter and rests a hand on Malik's shoulder, a sad smile on her face.

"Be careful with her Malik. If I hear about you purposely upsetting her, so help me god I will hurt you very badly." With that warning given, Riley picks back up her tray and goes off to take orders.

0-0-0-0-0

Ashling lays huddled up on her bed shivering, blankets pulled tightly around her. Outside the wind howls loudly, keeping the strawberry blonde-haired girl awake. Malik, however, is fast asleep.

Malik awakens suddenly, feeling someone shaking him. Sitting up, he looks around, surprised when he doesn't see anyone. However, he does hear something… a small whimpering sound coming from Ashling.

Malik quietly gets up off the blow-up mattress and tip-toes over to Ashling and is shocked to find her crying. Crystal blue watery eyes peer up at him and a soft hiccup issues from her mouth.

Something urges Malik to comfort her; a small part of his mind whispering to him. Kneeling down by the side of the bed, Malik gently strokes her hair, whispering calming words to her.

With the reflexes of a cat, Ashling springs from the bed and into Malik's arms and clings to his shirt tightly, still shivering and half plagued by nightmares.

Malik looks down at her half in shock and then tugs down her blankets to wrap around them both. Resigning himself to a long night, he leans up against the bed and wraps his arms around her thin frame.

0-0-0-0-0

Two weeks later, Ashling is almost back to normal after two weeks of extreme mood swings. Coming up is Jiro's birthday and everyone is getting ready for his party.

Finally the weekend arrives and the group heads over to Jiro's house on Saturday. Ishizu and Mrs. Phoenix have to force Malik to drive Ashling on his motorcycle and Ashling just to ride it. They eventually get to Jiro's after Malik is nearly squeezed to death by Ashling.

Riley, Max, Kaylie, Holly, and a few of Jiro's other guy friends- Sam, David, and Bob- are already there.

The first thing they do is begin playing games. Jiro pulls out his Twister game. Kaylie sits out on this one and spins the spinner.

Holly is the first to get out, followed by Bob, David, and Sam. Then Max falls over onto Riley, knocking both of them out of the game. This leaves only Jiro, Malik, and Ashling in the game. Then Jiro falls.

Now Ashling and Malik have to face everyone else making up complex moves for them. Then Malik falls onto Ashling and they both fall over into a heap.

"Looks like a tie." Jiro comments, ignoring how Ashling slaps Malik a few times trying to get away from him. "Come on, it's time for pizza!"

After pizza and cake, Jiro opens his presents. Most of his presents consist of card and money, but Holly and Max both found actual presents for him. Holly gave him a few volumes on the Inuyasha manga and Max gave him a few packets of Duel Monster cards.

"Awesome!" Jiro exclaims. "I've been looking for these everywhere! Where'd you find them?"

Max grins. "Just a little trading card game shop I came across. I'll show you later."

After this they take a bottle of Pepsi and some glasses into the living room for their next game. Then they settle on the floor in a circle.

Jiro goes first. "Alright… I've never worn make-up."

Ashling, Riley, Holly, Kaylie, Damian, and Max all take a gulp of soda.

Sam snickers. "You two have worn make-up before?"

"I was seven and stupid!" Damian exclaims.

"Sam here." Max defends.

"Oh, you liked it and you know it." Riley teases her brother. "I'll go next. I've never watched Bob the Builder."

Bob and David both drink some soda, leaving everyone else weirded out.

"My turn." Holly says. "I've never… umm, what have a never done?" She asks. "Oh! I've never disliked Anime!"

Bob, David, Sam, and Max all take a gulp.

The game carries on, with laughter at some of the crazy things people have done.

When they leave at eight, they leave laughing and goofing off. Granted, Ashling is still a little reserved, but they're gotten a smile and some giggling out of her.

Once home, Ashling collapses on her bed without bothering to change and immediately falls asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Halloween

It's now October and already close to Halloween. It's been over a month since the anniversary, so Ashling is back to what Malik sees as normal. Because it's so close to Halloween, the large group- aka Riley, Max, Holly, Damian, Jiro, Ashling, Kaylie, Malik, Tabby, Mike, and Chris- is preparing for it. Then Damian comes up with his 'most brilliant plan ever', which is the reason why he's grinning like a maniac when he sits down at the lunch table on Tuesday afternoon.

Riley eyes the now black, red, and golden haired boy suspiciously. "Damian, what on earth are you plotting?" She finally asks.

"Nothing, nothing." Damian says, false-innocently. "I'm  _planning_."

"By your book it's the same thing." Riley responds.

Damian shrugs. "I'm planning a Halloween party. Want to help?"

Riley considers this, distracted for a moment by Holly and Max as they sit down.

"What are you plotting this time?" Max asks wearily, nothing Damian's grin.

"Halloween party." Damian cheerfully replies. "You guys want to help?"

"Sure!" Holly exclaims excitably. "This is going to be so much fun! It is going to be a costume party? Will there be food? What-?"

Damian laughs at her eagerness while Riley and Max listen on in amusement.

"We'll help, Damian." Riley says. "Your poor house would be destroyed if it were to be just you and Holly decorating."

"Thanks guys. Oh, and let's just tell the others we're throwing a party. I want the decorations and everything to be a surprise." Damian says before Ashling and Malik sit down, shortly followed by the rest of the Anime fanatics and then Mike, Chris, and Tabby.

"You're hosting a Halloween party?" Jiro asks, surprised. "Is it a costume party or just a lets-hang-out-and-act-stupid party?"

"Costume of course!" Damian responds. "It's gonna be on Halloween for once 'cause it'll be Saturday!" He cheers. "This is going to be the best ever! How does karaoke sound?"

Ashling raises an eyebrow. "After hearing you sing at my family's Fourth of July get-together? No thanks."

"Okay, so I was a little high from having too much soda and candy, but that won't happen this year!" Damian exclaims.

Riley gives Damian a look. "Yes it will. You're going to eat so much candy and drink so much soda that you'll wake up the next morning with a sugar induced hangover and basically no memory of what happened the night before. Then me, Holly, Ash, and Jiro will tell you and you'll remember all the crap you did."

Damian sighs. "Yeah, you're right. Sometimes I hate it when you're right." He pokes something on his plate with his spork. "So… does anyone have any idea about what the hell this is?"

Everyone looks at the wiggling mutated mass of something in disgust.

"Didn't think so…" Damian mumbles, poking it more violently with his spork.

Ashling turns green. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Garbage can is right there." Damian says cheerfully, pointing over his shoulder to the gray garbage can behind him.

Ashling turns more green if possible. "Shut up, Damian."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Later that night Malik is laying on his bed doing homework and Ashling is at her desk doing a bunch of different things. Every once in a while the strawberry blonde haired girl glances down at Malik, obviously fighting an inner battle over something. Finally, she reaches a decision and turns around in her chair to face him.

Malik looks up from his work, feeling Ashling's eyes on him. "What?"

"Ano…" She holds up their Algebra 2 homework. "Can you help me out?"

Malik looks at her in surprise. "You want my help?"

Ashling bites her lip and nods. "None of the others are in Algebra 2 and besides, you're right here."

"Fine. Come down here and show me what you need help with." Malik says with a sigh.

Ashling gets up from her chair and sits down beside Malik. "I can't really explain it. I mean, I understood it when she showed us and gave us notes, but now I can't figure it out." She says. "I re-did the example problem but came up with something completely different."

Malik takes Ashling's notes and compares them to his own. "You're missing a part here." He says, pointing to a space between two steps. Malik then goes on to explain it to Ashling. Unbeknownst to them, Ishizu peeks through the door to watch them, smiling when she sees them finally getting along.

"Thanks Ishtar!" Ashling says, her voice considerably more cheerful. She quickly hugs him and then bounces back into her seat, slipping her headphones back on.

Malik watches her in something akin to amazement.  _'She's defiantly a mystery…'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Holly joyfully hums along to the Linkin Park CD as she, Riley, Max, and Damian decorate the overly large basement where the party will be held.

Riley and Damian are both working on ceiling decorations, not trusting Holly or Max with the ladders. Holly is alternating between getting decorations for Riley and Damian and cleaning up. Max is arranging the tables and going over the list of food and drinks for the party.

"We need a checklist." Riley comments. "That way we can make sure we have everything." She climbs down off the ladder, done with that section of the ceiling.

Damian nods and hops down off his ladder. "Max, you got a pen and paper?"

Max flips over to the next page in the notebook he's writing in. "Yup."

Damian begins naming off things for the checklist. Riley, Holly, and Max add things now and then.

With the way things are going with the decorating, they'll be finished long before the party. They actually finish on Friday, but have to hold off on putting out food and drinks until Saturday evening.

Saturday comes with much excitement for everyone going to the part. The list extends past the usual group to include more people they know, a fact that bothers Ashling, who would prefer goofing off with her close nit group of friends.

Ashling and Malik arrive at Damian's house at 7:05, five minutes after the party began. They follow the path lined by lit pumpkins to the basement door, which has been decorated by black and orange strips of fabric that fall over the frame. Inside, it takes a bit of searching to find their friends among the colors of the decorations and all the other people. Ashling keeps a tight hold on Malik's arm the entire time, not wanting to be left alone in the crowd. They eventually locate their friends who are lingering by the food.

Ashling is dressed up as a cat demon witch, her blonde hair left down for once. A black witch hat with a navy blue silk scarf wrapped around it and golden-blonde cat ears fixated on it is on her head. Her clothes are black with blue see-through pieces making up her sleeves and the bottom trim of her skirt. Wrapped around her waist is a blue scarf that matches the one around her hat. Poking through the back of the skirt is a golden cat tail that tufts out slightly on the end. Painted on her right cheek is a blue pentagram and on her left cheek are two sky blue stripes.

Malik is dressed up as a biker- dark blue jeans, red t-shirt, and a black jean jacket. In Ashling's sarcastic words, "How original."

Damian is dressed up as a ninja, Naruto style. The oh-so-familiar Konoha village head plate is tied around his head. He's wearing black pants and a dark green top. The usual pouches tied onto random but easy to reach places.

Jiro is dressed up as Miroku from Inuyasha- purple robes, golden staff, and all. He even has a lovely red handprint on his cheek from where Kaylie slapped him over something stupid.

Max is a baseball player.

Riley is dressed up in her old poodle skirt. It has a light gray top and a pink skirt with a little white poodle on it. Her hair is pulled up into a ponytail with a pink scarf that matches her skirt.

Kaylie is a dog demon. She's make cute little black dog-ears to go on her head and found a black tail. She's wearing a pale blue kimono with little dog bones decorating it. The obi for the kimono is black. On her left cheek is a single black stripe.

Holly is a dragon demon. She's wearing a ebony black kimono with red and blue dragons stitched into it. The obi for her kimono is fire red. Her hair is pulled up into a bun and she's wearing make-up. She has a light dusting of red eyeshadow and is wearing lip gloss. A bright red stripe runs from the bottom of her ear up halfway across her cheek on both sides. Below that stripe is a blue one that's a little shorter than the red one. On her forehead is a strange red marking that looks like two crescent moons, open ends pointed outwards, with a dot below and above it. )(

Tabby is a pirate. She managed to find a cream colored long sleeve shirt with somewhat puffy sleeves and a black vest with brass buttons. She also found black pants and some brown boots, which she tucks the ends of her pants into. A red piece of fabric is wrapped around her waist and is used to hold the fake sword she bought. Her hair is down, but is partially held back by the red bandana on her head. In both her ears are gold hoop earrings.

Everywhere around the basement is orange and black crepe paper and bats and little pumpkins hanging from the ceiling. An apple dunking tub is set up in a corner of the basement and already has a crowd of people around it. Both the tables are covered with bowls of food, which are carefully monitored by Max, Chris (who's wearing camouflage), and Mike (who's a ghost).

"Damian, Riley, Holly, and Max did a good job on the place." Ashling murmurs.

"Thanks Ash!" Max says happily, before going back to his conversation with one of the girls from school.

Someone taps Ashling on the shoulder moments later and a sense of familiarity washes over her followed by a calming wave of comfort. She turns around to see a boy with familiarly spiked reddish blonde hair. Most of his face is hidden behind a white mask and the boy is dressed entirely in white, which makes his pale skin seem darker. Strangely, there's a pair of white wings on his back, which shows he's dressed up as an angel.

"Care to dance?" He asks with a charming smile.

Ashling numbly nods, almost fearful of the strange familiarity.

Smiling, the boy leads Ashling off into the crowd to dance.

"Hey Malik, where'd Ash go?" Riley asks, walking up to the table with a cup of soda.

Malik points out to the dance floor. "She went off to dance."

Riley looks, startled, in the direction that Malik pointed, almost dropping her cup of soda. "What? But Ash-! She never-!" She glances fearfully at Malik. "What did the guy she went with look like? Did he seem intimidating at all?"

"I didn't get a good look." Malik says. "I know he had blonde hair the same color as Phoenix's and he was dressed up as a white angel and had a white mask. He had a calm feeling around him, I guess." He shrugs after saying this. "What's the big deal?"

"Ashling has a… condition." Riley says worriedly. "She doesn't trust very easily; she's incredibly shy. Me, her, and Damian have been friends since we were about seven and we're basically the only people Ashling completely trusts. Holly and Max are the only other people she considers trusting. I'm really surprised she's even half-accepted you already. Especially given the circumstances."

"So she doesn't go off with random people." Malik fills in. "There's no one else she trusts?"

Riley bites her lips, wracking her brain for someone else. "Her brother… but he's gone." 'But stil, the description Malik gave me sounds like him. But that's not possible!' Riley searches for her blonde friend out on the dance floor. "I'm going to go find Ashling." She tells Malik, who nods.

But Ashling isn't out dancing anymore, she's now outside with the boy, talking to him. She stands several feet away from him, watching him wearily.

"Hey Dream Kitten." He murmurs.

Ashling looks at him in shock. 'What? But only one person-!' "Liam?" She whispers.

The boy pulls off his mask and slips it inside a pocket hidden within the folds of his costume. Then he looks back at Ashling with calm stormy blue eyes.

Ashling gasps. "Oh Kami…"

Liam rushes forward and catches her as her knees buckle and she starts falling. "Easy sis. I told you that you get too stressed out."

Ashling looks up at her twin, clinging to his robes. "How?" She whispers, her throat dry. "How are you here? You- you're…"

"Dead?" Liam gently finishes, setting Ashling down on the grass. "Yes, I'm quite dead. I really wasn't suppose to come down here, but you know me. I snuck out."

Ashling sweat drops at the completely Liam-like remark. "Liam, you moron."

Liam grins. "Oh how I missed that. But anyway, I snuck out to talk to you." He takes on a serious look. "Sis- Dream, you gotta let go. I hate seeing you like this." He shushes her when she tries to speak. "Hush, I don't have too long so hear me out. I know you miss me- I've missed you too- but you've been mourning for so long. When I look down at you I want to see the  _real_ you. The prank-loving, slightly insane, twin sister that I grew up with and love."

Ashling has to crack a small smile at her brothers compliment.

"Ash, please don't stay locked up inside." Liam begs, glances around quickly. His eyes land on something that only he can see. _'I am in_ **so** _much trouble. How am I going to get out of this one?'_ "I've got to go." He says.

Ashling grabs his arm in an effort to keep him from leaving.  _'Cold… he's so cold…'_ "Please don't go! I never got to say goodbye!"

Liam sadly smiles. "There's no such thing as 'goodbye', Dream. Just 'see ya'." He says, patting Ashling on the head. "So, I'll see you, alright?"

Ashling sniffles, a tear running down her cheek. "Yeah… see you."

Liam sighs and places a feather in his twin's hand. "When you need me, I'll be there."

Ashling looks at the feather for a moment and then tightly hugs her brother. Liam hugs her back and then lets go and steps back.

"Later sis."

The wind blows, stirring up the leaves that have already fallen. Feathers flutter around Liam and then he's gone.

Ashling stands there for a moment, fighting with the more rational part of her mind. Then Riley rushes outside and ushers her back inside. The white feather remains in Ashling's hand.

Ashling glances back at the spot Liam had stood.  _'You've always been my determined guardian, haven't you? We've both lived up to our names now…'_


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8: Change_

It's Saturday and Riley, Damian, Holly, Max, Ashling, and Malik are all gathered at the movie theatre, buying food and tricks for the scary movie they're about to see.

Ashling and Damian are both grinning like the idiots they are, a surefire sign that they're planning something. Holly appears to also know, as she's skipping around the lobby singing, 'We're off to see the wizard!'.

Malik watches Holly skip around, the reddish-brown haired girl reminding him of Marik when he gets into sugar.

Riley sighs. "Holly, come over here and get your food and soda!" She calls over to her.

Holly stops singing and then skips over to the counter. Once she gets her food she stops skipping. Then the group heads back to see the movie.

Riley, Max, and Malik completely forget about Damian, Ashling, and Holly's plotting up until a highly suspenseful part of the movie.

Ashling lets out an ear piercing scream, Holly yells, "Jason!", and Damian jumps up in his seat and yells, "DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"

The three are quiet after that. Then Ashling begins pelting random people with popcorn. Damian soon begins to help her, but Holly doesn't because she's too into the movie at this point.

Riley and Max both roll their eyes at the two, but do nothing to stop them, happy that Ashling has began pranking again. Malik watches Ashling out of the corner of his eyes, confused by her behavior.

The movie ends some time later. Surprisingly, Ashling and Damian don't get caught. They walk out to the parking lot together, laughing hysterically. Ashling leaning on Damian for support.

"Did you see when that guy turned around and glared at  _Riley_?" Ashling asks. "As if it was all her fault we were throwing popcorn at him!"

Riley rolls her eyes. "Honestly, I though you two already moved on from immature pranks."

Damian throws an arm around Ashling's shoulders. "Why, I must start out small to prepare my dear old marauding buddy for the big 'uns."

Riley raises an eyebrow at his terminology, Max sighs, Malik looks at Damian like he's insane, and Ashling laughs.

"Still using the Harry Potter pranksters name?" She asks.

Damian grins. "But of course!" He takes his arms off Ashling's shoulder. "So, who's up for a trip to the mall?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After what is now known as "the mall incident", who's events shall remain unnamed, the group heads back to their small town and splits up, each heading for their own home. Once home, Ashling immediately heads for the computer while Malik decides to check his e-mail and see if Tama or Ryou is on the computer. He does so in his and Ashling's room.

Malik has two e-mails from Tama.

October 18. Shadoweddragon writes:

_Hey Mal, what's up? We've been having some freaky things going on here and it still has nothing to do with the 3 nuts. Although said 3 nuts have discovered sporks. (rolls eyes)_

_Neway, you know how DMG aka Mana screwed up with her whole 'mis-hearing' thing? Well, apparently Yugi's pregnant. Yes, you read correctly. He's about 3 months along now. We've figured the baby will be born in April. 'Kura, Marik, and Yume have been torturing Yami to no end over this whole thing. Yugi actually 'threw' them out of the house yesterday._

_I've got to go. I think 1 of the 3 nuts have blown up something in the kitchen again. I swear they need serious lessons. Ttyl_

_-Tama_

November 1. Shadoweddragon writes:

_Malik, shadows have been acting weird. Write me ASAP._

_-Tama_

Malik frowns at reading the second letter, his shock at the contents of the first one disappearing. 'The shadows have been acting weird? Why haven't I noticed?' The answer comes to him immediately. 'Of course. I haven't been dueling or practicing shadow magic lately. No wonder I haven't noticed.'

He clicks on the 'compose' button on e-mail and quickly types in Tama's e-mail address.

November 11.  _Lilaceyedcat_  writes:

_Tama,_

_I haven't noticed the shadows acting up. Don't tell yami I haven't been practicing. I'll check it out later in the bottom field here. I have no clue as to why they'd be acting up. Unless it has something to do with Yugi's "condition", the disappearance of the M. items, or us being separated._

_WBASAP._

_-Malik_

Malik sends the e-mail to Tama ad then shuts off his laptop. Then he sets it aside and gets up, walking over to his suitcase. He reaches in and pulls out his card box and puts it into his pocket. Malik leaves the room and goes downstairs where he finds Ishizu watching TV with Mrs. Phoenix.

"I'm going outside." He tells his sister as he puts on his shoes.

Ishizu nods. "Make sure you're back for dinner."

Malik nods in return and opens the door, ready to head down to the bottom field.

He gets down there less than ten minutes later and looks around to make sure no one can see him. 'This would be so much easier if I still had the Millennium Rod.' Malik thinks as he pulls a card from his deck. He sweat drops when he sees that it's Kuriboh. 'Tama…' Then he shrugs. 'Well, I've got to start out small anyway,'

Malik holds the card out in front of him and closes his eyes, concentrating on drawing the shadows to him. It takes longer than usual since he hasn't summoned anything for a while. He eventually gathers enough shadow magic and opens his eyes. "I summon Kuriboh!"

The shadow magic gathers into the shape of Kuriboh and then the Kuriboh itself appears

"Kuriiii!"

Malik pats the creature on the head when it floats over to him. "Well, nothing seems too odd here." Then something hits him in the back of his head. "Ow!" His jaw drops when he sees a  _second_ Kuriboh, this one brown and white. "Oh shit."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Malik walks back up to the house hours later looking incredibly tired. He walks right past Ishizu, who looks at him questioningly. Malik ignores her and goes upstairs, wanting nothing more than to collapse on his bed and sleep.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Mokuba watches several Kuriboh and a baby Blue-Eyes float or fly around the room. Tama yawns as she boredly continues to sketch the main building of Duelist Academy. A Kuriboh lands on her head and the tri-color haired girl twitches.

"Mokuba, please get the overgrown fluff ball off my head before I go insane." She growls, tightly gripping the mechanical pencil in her hand.

"Kurrrriiiii!" The Kuriboh protests as Mokuba takes it off Tama's head.

"Stupid fluff ball."

The Kuriboh looks sadly at Tama and Mokuba hugs it.

"Aww, Tama. You hurt his feelings."

Tama looks at Mokuba and the black furred Kuriboh. "You two look like you could be twins."

Mokuba grins. "We could, couldn't we?"

Tama rolls her eyes and turns back to her job of editing and re-editing the buildings for Duelist Academy, only to find the paper is gone. She grits her teeth and looks up to see the baby Blue-Eyes holding the paper. "Are you all against me getting any work done today, or what?"

Mokuba continues grinning. "Maybe."

At this time Seto steps into the room, stops abruptly at seeing the Kuriboh and the baby Blue-Eyes, and then turns on his heel and walks away from the room muttering, "They're not real. They're not real. There were  _not_ Duel Monsters flying around in my brother's room. They  _are not real_."

Tama sweat drops.  _'And he's suppose to be the Dragon Highlord.'_  The Dragon Guardian then turns her attention back to the baby Blue-Eyes flying around the room with her paper. "Blue! Please give me back that paper! I need to get that design finished!"

"You work too hard, Tama." Mokuba comments. "You need to relax a little."

Tama growls something in Dragonic and then slips a card from her Duel Monsters deck. "You want to see me do something fun? How about  _this_ for fun? I summon, Silver Fang!" Tama concentrates the shadow magic into the area and watches as it takes the shape of the wolf Duel Monster and then Silver Fang itself appears. "Tackle him, Silver Fang!"

With a howl, the Duel Monster tackles Mokuba to the ground. The younger Kaiba laughs loudly as Silver Fang licks his cheek.

Tama smirks and snatches the paper from the baby Blue-Eyes. "How's that for fun?"

Mokuba laughs and sits up, gently pushing Silver Fang away from him. "That was fun. I wasn't really expecting that."

Tama sits back down at the desk and goes back to editing the design. "Always expect the unexpected, young Kaiba."

Mokuba grins as the black furred Kuriboh lands on his head. "You'd think I'd know that by now."

"Yes, I would."


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9: Bastet_

"Watcha doin'?" Ashling asks, jumping onto Malik's make-shift bed.

"Going through my deck." Malik replies, pulling out another card Tama slipped into his deck.

Ashling looks at the cards, recognition crossing her face. "Isn't that the card game that Jiro now has an obsession with?" At Malik's nod she continues. "Are you any good?"

Malik smirks. "Came in second place in the Battle City tournament in Domino City, Japan. I almost beat Yugi Muto, the King of Games." He looks at Ashling's blank face and sighs. "Never mind."

"Sorry." Ashling says apologetically. "I'm not really into card games that much. I like watching people play, but I don't like playing."

Malik shrugs. "Well, card playing isn't for everyone."

The two sit in silence for a few minutes, except for the shuffling of cards.

"So, what do you want?" Malik asks. "You've got to be hovering around me for a reason, Phoenix."

Ashling grins sheepishly. "Well actually, I was hoping you'd help me prank Damian."

Malik raises an eyebrow. "Don't you usually work alone?"  _'And why the hell would she ask me of all people?'_

"Yes and no." Ashling hesitantly replies. "Before… before my brother and I would team up against Damian and Riley and other times we'd switch around. Riley has grown out of pranking, so I can't ask her."

"Why me?" Malik voices the question he asked himself earlier.

"Well…" Ashling taps her chin with her finger in thought. "Damian said something about you having experience in the world of pranking." She looks at Malik curiously, waiting for him to either confirm it or deny it.

Finally, Malik nods. "I do."

Ashling brightens up. "So will you help?"

Malik considers it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons. Then he shrugs. "Why not."

Ashling cheers and bounces up off the makeshift bed. She quickly retrieves a folder from her desk and sits back down beside Malik with it. "Alright, here are some of my ideas…"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I'm starting to hate Sunday evenings." Riley groans, walking past Damian with a tray of snacks and drinks.

Damian smirks. "Contemplating killing me now?"

"Nope. I ran out of good places to hide bodies." Riley shoots back, walking off to give the people their food and drinks.

"Aww, poor you."

"You sound so disappointed." Riley replies.

Holly rolls her eyes at the two, disgusted by their flirting. "What happened to the 'all work and no play' concept?"

"Demolished." Damian replies cheerfully. "It didn't work out too well. Say, we're closing up for Thanksgiving, right?"

"You're the owner." Holly says, absentmindedly poking the cash register. "It would be nice though." She looks up at Damian curiously while he messes with a loose thread on his purple vest. "Are you going to Ashling's?"

"Yeah…"

"You don't sound happy about that." Holly comments.

Damian growls. "He promised he was going to come home for Thanksgiving, but, per usual, he had a  _change of plans_."

The two are silent for a minute and then Holly looks up and asks, "Do you need a hug?"

Damian sweat drops. "No."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Monday brings school and with it Ashling and Malik's prank- er, pranks on Damian. By lunch, Damian is fed up with all the crap that's happened to him. Lets recap- After taking a shower that morning, he discovered his hair was an interesting shade of bright, florescent pink. Then he was bombarded by a ton of paper balls and airplanes upon walking in first period. Then he discovered his shoe strings got tied together when he stood up to leave first period. In second period he kept tripping over things, but when he looked there was nothing there. Nothing really happened in third except he swore he was hearing voices. Now it's lunch time and Damian is eyeing Ashling suspiciously, although the girl has an innocent look on her face.

"Nice color, Damian." Chris snickers, sitting down with his lunch.

The now bright-florescent-pink-haired boy glares at Chris. "Shut up."

"Don't you just love it?" Holly asks teasingly, patting Damian on the head.

Damian swats her hand away. "Shut up. It's not like I meant to dye my hair pink. Someone," He glares at Ashling. "put dye in my conditioner."

"Pretty boy." Malik coughs, trying to hide a smirk at the same time.

Damian looks back and forth between Malik and Ashling. "You… this means war!" He exclaims, jumping up. "Just you two wait! I'll get you back for this!"

Ashling grins. "All I gotta say is, bring it on!"

"Oh I'll bring it all right!" Damian yells, lunging for Ashling. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you see it, someone has once again tied Damian's shoe laces together. Thus, he falls.

The table explodes with laughter and a highly embarrassed Damian peels himself off the floor, pretending to be fascinated with her shoelaces.

Ashling and Malik exchange grins and then quickly look away when they realize what they're doing. Operation ED has gone without a hitch.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

' _Gym is evil.'_ Ashling decides as she and Tabby hit their third lap of jogging on the track.  _'And it hasn't gotten easier! Just harder and harder! I could have sworn that last year it was four laps for a mile and the years before that it was three! How the hell is it suddenly_ **five** _! Are they_ trying  _to kill us?'_

Breathing heavily as they go, and Ashling starting to trip over her own feet, they make it to the fourth lap.

"Just one- more- after-" A gasp. "-this." Ashling pants, swallowing air.

Tabby just nods, unable to speak.

They get halfway around the track before Ashling's brain begins registering that something is wrong.  _'My eyes… my visions blurring.'_  Then a blackout slams into her leaving her dizzy after her vision clears. Ashling stumbles and nearly falls over, but manages to catch herself.

Tabby glances worriedly at her friend and gives her an 'are you okay?' look.

Ashling nods, now unable to say anything due to lack of breath.

The two almost reach the end when Ashling's vision swims and then another black out hits her. 'Oh shit!' Is her only thought before unconsciousness takes over.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling awakens hours later in a hospital bed. Malik, Damian, and Riley are all in chairs sitting around her. "Hey guys." She whispers weakly, her throat both sore and dry.

"How are you feeling?" Riley asks immediately, her hazel-green eyes concerned. "Tabby told us you collapsed on the track. What happened?"

Ashling does the only thing she can do in her state; she shrugs.

Riley frowns. "Your throat?" She guesses correctly. "I'll got get some water for you. Anyone else want anything?"

"Get her soda." Damian says. "Soda and chocolate for her and some soda and sugar for me!"

Riley rolls her eyes. "Non-healthy junk food addicts."

Damian winks at her and Riley blushes. "You'd better believe it!"

"I-I'll be right back." Riley says as calmly as she can, the blush firmly in place. Then she rushes out of the room, nearly bumping into Ishizu on the way. An apology is hastily make before she goes to get the soda, chocolate, and sugar.

"Feeling better, Ashling?" Ishizu asks politely.

Ashling smiles weakly and shrugs. "Felt better." She says hoarsely.

"I heard you fainted in gym." The older Egyptian says cautiously.

Ashling and Malik both frown.

"Ishizu, her throats dry and sore; she can't talk!" Malik snaps.

Ishizu's eyes flicker back and forth between Malik and Ashling for a moment. 'I wonder…' "Malik, come here for a second."

Malik looks at his sister with a puzzled look on his face, but gets up and walks over toward her. He gets no further than three feet from Ashling when spots dance in front of his eyes and he stops and takes a step back toward Ashling. On the bed Ashling is now breathing heavily, her eyes tightly shut and her fists clenched in her attempt to block out the painful feeling. Damian looks worriedly at his best friend.

Ishizu catches sight of a strange marking on the back of Ashling's right hand and walks over to her to get a better look. On her hand is a pale blue circle and a long soft green colored triangle. "This… this is Bastet's symbol."

Malik looks at Ishizu and Ashling, lilac eyes wide. Damian just looks horribly confused, as does Ashling.

"Who?" Damian asks for both of them.

"Bastet. The cat goddess." Ishizu replies, frowning. "But I don't understand why she has picked a chosen after all this time. And why Ashling? I do know this however," Ishizu looks over at her brother. "you and Ashling are now bonded together because of this. Bastet's chosen always has had an Egyptian bonded to her."

"WHAT!" All three teens exclaim, although Ashling's proclamation is more quiet.

Ishizu sighs and closes her eyes. "You two cannot go over three feet away from each other without passing out."

Ashling and Malik both groan, Ashling wincing and quickly stopping.

' _Well, things can't get any worse now.'_ Malik growls to himself. _'And this just proves that the gods and goddesses aren't done screwing with my life yet.'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling is released from the hospital the next morning and she, Malik, and Ishizu spend the entire day trying to figure out how to deal with this big mess.

Eventually Ishizu comes up with the idea to bind their energies together and create some sort of chain that will allow them to separate. This suggestion gets an odd look from Ashling and a sigh from Malik, who knows he will have to give up his earrings since they're the one things he always wears.

Ishizu's suggestion, which is the only one that will work, gets the two Egyptians a multitude of questions from the American girl. After explaining what they can, and still managing to be incredibly vague, Ashling is still confused but understands better.

"So, all I have to do is wear Malik's earrings all the time, twenty-four seven." Ashling says skeptically, looking at the cleaned earrings that are now in her hand.

Ishizu nods. "Yes, that is all." Of course, there's more to it, but Ishizu can do the rest herself. She waits until Ashling has the earrings in and then weaves a strong chain of shadow magic between the them that will allow them to be separated without either of them collapsing.

"There is one thing." Ishizu says rather tiredly. "It's not too bad though. You two have a connection now and you'll most likely be able to sense each others feelings. It may grow stronger as time goes on."

Ashling looks at Ishizu like she's grown two head and Malik hopes that it never happens, as Ashling would then be able to sense Marik's feelings and then things would get messy.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I don't get why it's such a big deal about this Thanksgiving dinner at your grandmother's house." Malik comments, watching Ashling pace around his bed. He doesn't need the small link between them to feel her nervousness. "Why are you so nervous, anyway?"

Ashling bites her lip. "My grandmother can be a bit… prejudice. She won't even consider taking into account that you're half… American? It is American, right?"

Malik nods, still confused.

"It's your dark skin." Ashling says. "She won't hear that it's because you like the sun too much. And also the whole arranged marriage thing has already set her off."

"You worry too much, Ashy." Damian comments from his relaxed position on Ashling's bed.

Ashling scowls. "Don't call me that, Damian."

The now neon-green, orange, and black haired boy just grins and picks up a Yu Yu Hakusho graphic novel off the bedside table and lazily begins reading it.

"Punk…" Ashling grumbles.

"So you're worried about how she might act?" Malik asks, taking the strawberry blonde girl's attention away from Damian.

"Not exactly." Ashling replies. "She'll act like everything is alright. I'm more worried about what she'll say."

"She has a big mouth." Damian says, earning himself a glare, a smack on the head with the graphic novel, and a "shut up, Damian."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The Phoenix's, the "adopted" Phoenix (Damian), and the two Ishtars arrive at Ashling's grandmother and grandfather's house around noon. It turns out that Ashling had worried for good reason, and had to continuously calm down Malik and Damian's tempers (as her grandmother had insulted Malik's family and thus insulted Tama and Kiba) several times that afternoon. They leave early, tempers running high and emotions thoroughly tested.

Damian decides to sleep over and winds up collapsed at the foot of Ashling's bed. Needless to say, they won't be visiting Ashling's grandparents for a while.

Over in Domino things have gone… slightly better.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"BAKURA! YUME! MARIK!" Tama screams at the top of her lungs, startling everyone not in the kitchen. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH THE TURKEY!"

Several loud crashes and some curses issue from the Muto's kitchen. Yugi sits there on the couch in the living room ignoring it all, munching on some chips that Tama gave him earlier. Yami sits beside him casting worried glances back toward the kitchen while Grandpa Solomon slowly edges further away from the kitchen door. Bakura, Yume, and Marik run out of the kitchen moments later, cackling evilly.

Yami sweat drops when Tama runs after them and Ryou watches from the door, a small smile on his face.

After many loud thumps, several crashes, tons of cursing, and a bit of shadow magic dabbling, the house finally quiets down. This is not necessarily a good thing, however, as the 'three nuts' do all their plotting in silent moments.

Several hours later Tama and Ryou are finally done cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and Ryou gets to go get the yami's because Tama is still angry with them. Yami hovers around the 5-month-pregnant Yugi, already concerned about his Light's health. Tama sighs at this and wishes she could beat Yami over the head for his over-protectiveness without inspiring Yugi's wrath. Yugi is  ** _very_** scary when provoked.

Take for example a few weeks ago when Bakura was teasing him about getting fat. Yami actually felt pity for the Tomb Robber after his hikari was done with him.

So now Yugi, Yami, Grandpa Solomon, Bakura, Yume, and Marik are all sitting down at the dinner table waiting for Ryou and Tama to bring the food over. First comes the side dishes- the green beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni, rolls, etc- and then comes the turkey. Bakura, Yume, and Marik eye the turkey deviously, while Yugi helps himself to the macaroni and cheese.

Then, the most remarkable thing happens that makes everyone stop and stare, speechless. The turkey, the headless roasted turkey, stands up on it's drumsticks and starts  _dancing_. Yes, dancing.

Tama twitches and drops the carving knife, which she was just about to use to plunge into said turkey.

The Darks crack up laughing when the youngest light picks the carving knife back up and attempts to stab the turkey to keep it from doing the can-can, as it had just been doing the cha-cha.

Ryou, Yami, and Grandpa Solomon all have to hide their amusement at the three yami's rather cleaver and harmless prank. And then the turkey starts doing the moonwalk and all hope of not laughing is lost. Tama twitches and Yugi stares at his macaroni and cheese like it's the most fascinating thing in the world.

Tama curses when the turkey jumps off the table (actually it's more like 'it hobbles off the table', but lets not get technical with this) and takes off running for the door, which is strangely open.

Tama twitches again and calmly places the knife down. "Excuse me for a moment." She says, her voice dangerously calm. Yami, Ryou, and Grandpa Solomon watch as she runs out the door after the turkey, yelling at it loudly.

She returns less than ten minutes later with the now beat up turkey and drops it back onto it's plate in the middle of the table. "Enjoy."

Yugi looks up from his macaroni and turns green. "I think I'm going to be sick." He murmurs, before rushing off to the bathroom.

Grandpa Solomon pats Yami on the back sympathetically when the father-to-be sighs loudly.

"I'd better go make sure he's alright." The once-ancient spirit murmurs, getting up.

"Wanna take some turkey to him?" Bakura asks, grinning.

Yami glares at the silvery-white haired boy. "No. Shut up Tomb Robber or I'll let Yugi at you again."

Bakura winces at the memory and falls silent.

-(You know, I believe that's the first time that Yami has ever managed to shut him up.)- Tama comments, amused.

-'It's the first time  _anyone_ has shut him up.'-

Tama sends a wave of agreement to her fellow Light. -(True)-


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter 10: Christmas_

"…we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!" Damian sings happily, standing outside the Phoenix's front door.

Laughing, Ashling opens the door to see Damian standing there dressed in a red sweater, black pants, and a Santa hat on his head. Ashling hugs him, giggling when Damian puts an elf hat on her head.

"Come on in, Damian." Mrs. Phoenix says. "Come in out of the cold and join us. We're just about to watch  _The Grinch_."

Damian grins. "You look as lovely as ever, Mrs. Phoenix. It's good to see you, Mr. Phoenix." He says, nodding to Ashling's dad. "Ah, Ishizu!" He walks across the room to the dark haired Egyptian. "You look absolutely beautiful today." Damian says, kissing the back of her hand.

"As charming as ever, Damian." Ishizu comments.

Ashling tugs the end of Damian's Santa hat. "Down boy."

Damian barks playfully and sticks out his tongue, which makes Ashling laugh again.

Obviously, it's Christmas vacation. Damian has closed the café for the break, mainly because Riley and Max went up to New York, Jiro's in North Carolina, Kaylie's in Florida, and Holly and Tabby (who has been helping out at the café) are in different parts of Virginia.

Once again Damian's father has gone off to a different country for his job and Damian is staying with the Phoenix's just like he has every year.

Malik comes downstairs just before the movie starts. Damian grins and places an elf hat on the blonde's head, getting a glare from him.

"Oh relax Ishtar." Ashling says. "Sit down, we're going to watch a Christmas movie." She yanks him down onto the couch with her after saying this.

Malik yelps and lands roughly on the couch. He then glares at Ashling and Damian, who are both grinning.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Over in Domino City, Mokuba has enlisted the help of Tama, Ryou, Joey, Serenity, Marik, Yume, and Bakura in decorating the mansion.

The three yami's are setting up the tree, Mokuba and Serenity are putting up other decorations in the house, and Tama, Ryou, and Joey are baking. Later they'll all going to go outside and decorate the outside.

Tama puts another batch of Christmas cookies into the oven and then closes the door, wiping her brow. Then she looks at her fellow chef's. Ryou's wearing a power blue apron that says, "Kiss the cook" (a gift that Tama gave him for his birthday). Joey's apron is dark green with dog-bone buttons. Tama's apron is red plaid.

"So who wants to go see what trouble the Darks have managed to get into with setting up the tree?" Tama asks, wiping her hands off on a towel.

Ryou and Joey exchange quick glances and then look pointedly at Tama, who sweat drops.

"Okay, okay! I'll go check on them." The female Light grumbles, pulling off her apron. "If I'm lucky Marik hasn't stuck his finger in an electric socket yet."

"And we wonder how he gets his hair spiked up like that." Ryou comments.

Tama rolls her eyes and walks out of the kitchen to go hunt down the "three nuts".

"Hey Ryou, ten bucks says dat dey have managed ta get da lights tangled up." Joey says.

Ryou sighs. "More likely one of them has gotten themselves tangled up in the lights."

Sure enough, in the living room Yume and Bakura are struggling to get the tree up. Marik is stuck over in the corner, tied up with Christmas lights that are turned on and several ornaments hanging off him.

"What in the name of Ra is going on here?" Tama asks upon stepping into the room.

Yume looks sheepishly at her hikari. "Well Marik wasn't cooperating and was making more of a mess so…"

"So you tied him up." Tama finishes knowingly. "I want him untied and for this tree to be finished by the time this last batch of cookies is done."

Yume and Bakura salute Tama mockingly. "Sir, yes sir!"

Tama growls threateningly at the two before turning around and going back to the Kaiba's kitchen.

Out in the hall armed with a staple gun and some duck tape are Serenity and Mokuba, who are singing Christmas carols while putting up decorations. Mokuba is stapling the stringed pine needles (I have no clue what they're called…) top of the walls while Serenity is untangling the long string.

Despite the numerous set-backs they face, the group manages to get several rooms and the outside of the house decorated before Seto gets home from work.

The brunette greets them with, "What are  _they_ doing here?" after he hugs Mokuba.

"Nice to see you too." Tama grumbles while Yume says, "Well your damn house is still standing, isn't it?"

The female ex-spirit gets smacked for that comment.

The hikari's, yami's, Serenity, and Joey leave soon after.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ishizu looks suspiciously at the two Americanized teens who are whispering to one another while gesturing to a piece of paper.

"What are you two up to?" She asks.

Ashling and Damian jump and then look at Ishizu guiltily. "Nothing!" They say in unison.

Ishizu just sighs and ignores them, deciding she doesn't want to know what they're plotting, and walks on down the stairs.

Damian looks questioningly at Ashling who just shrugs. The two go back to whatever they're plotting after making sure no one else is within hearing distance.

"Are you sure this will work?" Ashling asks.

Damian nods. "Positive."

Ashling bites her lip, a nervous habit she's recently picked back up. "I hope you're right."

"Are you doubting me?" Damian asks in mock-horror. "How many times have I been wrong?"

"Countless." Ashling replies smartly.

"Name one." Damian challenges.

"Well there was that one time when we were 8-"

"I meant recently." Damian interrupts.

Ashling frowns and has to think for a minute, but she finds something. "What about just this summer when you decided that 'gliding' off the roof was a good idea?"

Damian blinks comically. "I forgot about that…"

"Idiot."

The door to Ashling and Malik's (and partially Damian's) room opens and Malik steps out, yawning.

"Morning Ishtar/Psycho." Ashling and Damian greet.

"Too early. Shut up." Malik mutters, shuffling into the bathroom.

Damian and Ashling both sweat drop.

"Well," Ashling says with a sigh. "that worked well."

"Indeed."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Malik looks curiously at the video file Tama sent his that is labeled "Happy Birthday".

' _Do I dare?'_ He asks himself.  _'Curiosity will eventually get the better of me, so I've better do it now.'_  His mind made up, Malik clicks the link and sits back to watch.

The screen blinks to life with a picture of the Muto's living room floor.

"Is it on?" He hears Joey ask.

"Is the red light blinking?" Malik grins at hearing his cousin's amused tone.

The picture blurs as Joey moves the camera around to find this light. "No."

"Well, is the green light blinking?"

"No."

"What color is it then?"

"Purple."

"Purple!" Several voices exclaim. Malik can easily identify them as Tama's, Mokuba's, and Téa's. He also can immediately figure out who has done it.

"MARIKU! BAKURA! YUMERI! CAN'T YOU BEHAVE FOR MORE THAN FIVE SECONDS!"

Malik winces, almost pitying the three Darks. Tama's wrath is a dangerous and scary thing. It's times like these when it's surprising that she's a Light.

Joey finally gets the camera situated correcting just in time to catch Yugi losing his unusually short temper and blasting the three through the shadow realm and out of the house. Again.

Malik's respect for the smaller hikari rises several notches when he sees this.  _'Apparently all Muto women have dangerous tempers. That explains a lot…'_

"Alright Malik, if dis thing's one- we're all gathered here ta wish ya a happy birthday." Joey says. "You've been gone for about a half a year now an' quite a few things have changed."

"Joey, we haven't changed that much." Téa reprimands, stepping in front of the camera. Malik's jaw almost drops.

Since the end of the last school year, which was about the last time he saw her, Téa has let her hair grow out past her shoulders and has started lightly applying a little bit of make-up to accent her features. She's wearing a Christmas-y red shirt with white snowflakes decorating it. She's wearing a matching skirt that does down to her knees.

"Hi Malik." Téa says. "Joey I swear if that thing isn't on I'm going to feel so stupid."

"You an' me both, Téa." Joey replies, moving the camera over to Yami and… Yugi? "Alright Malik, dat's Yugi if you haven't figured dat out."

In his female form, Yugi's hair isn't spiked up. Instead it's down and falls above his shoulders. His usual golden lightning bolt shaped bangs still frame his face. He's wearing some of Tama's clothes since she's the only one about his size. He's wearing one of her older black shirts which stretches around his rounding stomach.

' _He's wearing pajama pants.'_ Malik notes with amusement.

"And dere's Tristan, Duke, and my sister." Joey says, moving the camera over to the three. "Ah look, da triumphant return." He comments, panning around to the now frazzled Darks.

"Shut up before I make you shut up." Bakura growls threateningly.

"Aww, put a sock in it." Joey replies. "Or else I'll sick Yug' on ya!"

The camera is passed to someone shorter now and that person turns the camera to Yugi, who is blushing.

"So cute."

Malik raises an eyebrow.  _'Mokuba?'_

Mokuba laughs. "So much for a birthday surprise." He says, turning the camera to Bakura and Joey, who are now arguing.

"Bakura, please don't start anything." Ryou begs. "Joey, don't get him started again. Please you two!"

A fuming Tama steps into view. "SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP! All of you!"

The camera fumbles and then falls and the screen goes blank for a moment before flickering back to life. Now Malik can see everyone. Someone, most likely Tama, has arranged everyone in the group as anyone bound to start fighting with someone is away from that person. Bakura and Yume are on the far left trapped by Tama and Ryou. Marik is in the back in between Seto and Joey. Serenity and Duke are in the middle. Tristan in on the right and Yugi, Yami, and Mokuba are in the front.

"We would have gotten grandpa here, but ever since our Thanksgiving Turkey Incident he refuses to be in the same room as Bakura, Yume, and Marik." Tama says, giving the three yami's a look. "Anyway, since you're halfway across the world, this is basically the only thing we can do for your birthday."

Malik groans. "Please don't sing." He mutters, already knowing that they are going to. "I really don't feel like hearing my yami and Tristan sing."

His pleas go unanswered, further proving that the gods hate him. Malik turns the volume down, wincing at the particularly loud screech his yami purposely put in his voice. _'I'm going to get Tama for this one.'_ He vows. _'Although… it is nice to see everyone.'_

Ashling cracks open the door to the computer room and peeks in. "Ishtar, is something wrong? I felt annoyance from out link thingy."

"I'm fine, Phoenix. My cousin sent me a "happy birthday" vide and all my friends were singing." Malik says, as the screen flickers and then goes back to his e-mail.

"Oh. Alright, I just wanted to check." Ashling says, before closing the door and going back to whatever she was doing.

Malik sighs and then decides to type an e-mail to send to Tama. '"Tama, I'm going to kill you" _, that should be a good beginning.'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Malik goes downstairs for dinner several hours later to find no one is there. "Hello? Ishizu? Phoenix? Pretty-boy?"

"SURPRISE!"

Malik almost falls backward in surprise when everyone jumps out of their hiding places.

"Happy Birthday, psycho!" Damian says, snapping a childish 'happy birthday' hat onto Malik's head. "We've got pizza and cat for dinner today!"

"Meat lover's is mine!" Ashling yells, running into the kitchen.

"Hey!" Damian protests. "What if I want some? Ash? Ash!" He runs after her into the kitchen.

"BITE ME!"

Malik sweat drops. Some birthday this is turning out to be.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Wake up!" Ashling and Damian chorus in unison, jumping on either side of Malik's bed. This action makes Malik go flying up into the air from the force. He winds up landing heavily on Ashling.

"Oomph!"

The two blondes go rolling off the air mattress in a tangled head. Damian laughs at the two and can't help but comment, "Aww, look at the little lovebirds!" At this, Ashling and Malik jump away from one another.

Damian rolls his eyes at their childishness, but maintains his cheerful look. "No time for fighting you two, it's Christmas! C'mon guys, get up so we can go downstairs and open presents!" He exclaims, jumping up. The now green, red, and black haired boy then proceeds to loudly sing "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

"By Ra, shut up! No one wants to hear you singing this early in morning!" Malik says, covering his ears.

Ashling nods in agreement. "Damian, we'll sing Christmas carols later. Please don't ruin the good morning."

Damian sighs and stops singing. He pouts instead. "Okay, okay. I'll wait until we go downstairs.

Ten minutes later the three are downstairs and Damian is once again singing. It's not like he has a bad singing voice, he has a rather good one. It's just that he sings so  _loudly_.

"SHUT UP!" Almost everyone yells.

Damian just grins and stops singing, having succeeded in annoying everyone in the morning.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Over in Domino things are more peaceful. Yume and Bakura are unusually quiet which means Marik has no one to plot with.

This year all the yami's have presents of their own and Malik has a pile that's sitting in the corner of the Bakura house. All three of the yami's and Tama and Ryou are in the living room passing around presents. Christmas carols play in the background.

Joey and Serenity are laughing and talking while they open their gifts from each other and their friends.

Over with the Muto's, Yugi is crying over a baby shirt from Téa. Yami is trying his best to comfort the boy-turned-girl and Grandpa Solomon is sitting there quietly, waiting for Yugi to make on of his trips to the bathroom so he can eat the last Christmas cookie.

Duke is enjoying a cup of tea in his somewhat quiet apartment while carefully unwrapping his gifts. A young girl around 12 with wavy black hair and jade green eyes sits beside him, tearing the wrapping paper off her gifts and examining them fully before moving on to the next one.

Tristan is busy chasing around the puppy his younger brother got because it stole one of his socks. His younger brother laughs while he watches Tristan chase the puppy 'round and 'round.

Seto and Mokuba are now settling down in their living room after eating breakfast. Mokuba merrily begins separating out the presents while Seto sits there watching, a small smile on his face.

Téa is enjoying Christmas morning with her parents. Each of them have a cup of tea and a peppermint candy cane.

Now we head over to another apartment where Mai is just leaving.

"Excuse me, Miss Mai Valentine?" The guy at the counter asks.

Mai turns around, an uninterested look on her face. "Yes?"

"You have a package." The guys says, setting said package on the counter. "It came this morning."

Mai's surprised, but doesn't show it. Instead she nods and takes the package and then heads back up to her room. Inside she takes off her shoes, letting them lie carelessly on the floor, and walks over and sits down on her couch. She then proceeds to unwrap the carefully wrapped gift. She looks in surprise at the small plushy dog she has unwrapped, it's golden faux-fur surprisingly soft for such an ordinary looking plushy. A note falls out onto the couch and Mai picks it up.

_Love,_

_me. (1)_

She smiles, knowing instantly who sent her the Christmas present. _'Joey…'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Back the with Phoenix's, Damian, Malik, and Ishizu Ashling, Damian, and Malik run into a problem.

"Look who's under the mistletoe!" Cheyenne cajoles.

All three High School seniors look up at the same time and see mistletoe hanging above two of them… Ashling and Damian both blush.

"It's a tradition you two." Mrs. Phoenix says.

Ashling quickly kisses Damian on the cheek and then Damian does the same to her.

Unbidden, a wave of jealously washes over Malik, leaving him confused. Ashling glances at Malik, having felt some of the emotion through the link.

"I'm fine." Malik mutters.

Ashling doesn't look too convinced, but she lets it go. After all, it's Christmas and Christmas isn't a time to worry.

' _I really hate mistletoe.'_ Malik decides. (2)


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: January

_Tama,_

_I think I'm fine… something's been bothering me a bit lately, but I'm not sure what. Phoenix is making me watch some New Years thing where this ball drops to celebrate the New Year or something. I hope Marik is behaving and not causing too much trouble._

_-Malik_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tama glances at Yume in annoying, as her yami was reading over her shoulder. Again.

"They drop a ball? What's the point of that?" Yume asks somewhat boredly.

Tama sighs. "It's something of an American tradition to welcome the New Year. I'm not quite sure about it myself."

Yume blinks. "Okay then. Bye." She says, bouncing off to find Bakura and Marik.

Tama wearily watches her yami, wondering what she could possibly be plotting this time.

The second youngest Light doesn't find out what Yume's plot was until midnight of the first of January- the start of the New Year.

"Tama! Ryou! Wake up!" Yume hisses, shaking her hikari's shoulder. "Come on you two, wake up! I said WAKE UP RA-DAMN IT!"

Ryou and Tama jump up out of bed and look wide-eyed around the room. Tama groans when she sees it's just Yume.

"Urg… go away, Yume." Tama mumbles, falling back onto her pillow.

"Sorry, can't!" Yume replies. "Me and Bakura and Marik want you to come with us to see something! You've got to come!"

-'They'll bug us for the rest of the night if we don't get up.'- Ryou sleepily says.

-(Fine, lets amuse them like we always do. I always knew I'd regret letting her hang out with Marik too long. She's gone and turned all evil on me again.)-

Ryou sweat drops. -'You mean she hasn't always been like this?'-

-(No, not always. Now lets get up before Yume starts fidgeting and drags us to wherever it is the thing is that she wants us to see.)-

The two Lights get up and obediently follow Yume to Bakura and Marik, and then they follow them outside after grabbing their coats.

Ryou yawns. "What's going on?" He asks.

Bakura, Marik, and Yume say nothing as they get closer to the main road where screaming can be heard.

"What the bloody hell?" Tama asks, rubbing her eyes in shock, for rolling and bouncing down the road is a giant shimmering ball of shadow magic.

You can just imagine the two hikari's reactions. Well, it's more like Tama's reaction as Ryou's the more innocent hikari and is mainly at a loss of words. Tama however, has no problem finding the words to say how she feels about all of this, and poor Ryou has to hold her back when she attempts to attack the 'three nuts'.

What a good start to a New Year, huh?

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"IT'S SNOWING!" are the first two words that Malik hears early on a cold Saturday morning in January.

"Wake up, Ishtar! It's snowing! The others are coming over for our annual Day of First Snow!" Ashling yells excitably, running around the room trying to find her gloves and scarf.

Malik groans and tugs the covers up over his head only to have them ripped away.

"Ishtar, no sleeping! Time to get up!" Ashling says.

Malik cracks open one lilac eye and sleepily glares at Ashling. "Shut up, Phoenix."

Ashling pouts, but then grins when an idea pops into her head. "Mm'kay." She says, opening the door and walking out.

Malik sighs and grabs his blankets and snuggles back up in them. He's almost asleep when Ashling comes back in with a large cup of water and dumps it on him.

Malik shrieks loudly and jumps up, his hair and the top of his shirt soaking wet. "PHOENIX!"

Ashling just grins and sets the cup down. "Aww, is the poor baby all wet?"

Malik growls and then tackles Ashling to the ground. Ashling yelps loudly as her back hit's the ground and her head narrowly misses her dresser.

"Malik! Ashling!" Cheyenne yells. "Your weird freaks of friends are here for your stupid 'first snow' crap!"

Neither of them move.

"Hey Ishtar, you mind getting off? Damian's going to burst in here any second an-"

Ashling doesn't get a chance to finish as Damian does exactly as Ashling said.

The now once-again purple and black haired boy whistles, making Riley, who is right behind him, smack him in the head.

Malik and Ashling quickly try to scramble away from each other, but Ashling's earrings get caught by Malik's sleeve.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…" Ashling chants while Malik tries to get the earring unhung."

Jiro raises an eyebrow at the state of the room. "What the hell have you two been doing?"

"I had to wake him up somehow!" Ashling defends, wincing. "OW! Ishtar, that hurt!"

"I got it undone, didn't I?" Malik retorts, finally able to stand up and get away from Ashling.

Ashling stands up as well, frowning at her now wet clothes. "I'm all wet."

"If you hadn't dumped water on me then you wouldn't be wet, now would you?" Malik says, glaring half-heartedly at the girl.

Ashling turns red, half from embarrassment and half from anger.

Damian snickers. "He's got you there, Ash! Now go and get dressed! We've got a super fun day of snow ahead of us! There's two feet of good packing snow out there!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling sits high up in a pine tree, a large garbage bag of snow hanging off a branch beside her. A carefully packed snowball is in each of her hands. A flash of black and purple catches her attention. 'There!' Ashling's eyes zero in on Damian's form and then she throws the two snowballs at him. Damian curses when they hit him in the head and spins around, scooping up a handful of snow as he does so. He spots Ashling up in the tree and narrows his eyes. Ashling grins and waves down at him.

-THUNK!-

Ashling almost loses her balance when she's hit from behind by a snowball. She turns around to see Riley smirking with a snowball in her hand. Ashling yelps in surprise for the second time that day when Riley shoves snow into her coat.

"Cold!" She shivers, one hand reaching for her bag of snow. She looks back when she can't find it and finds that Jiro has it. "If you shove that down my coat I'll- EEEEPPP! COLD!" She shrieks, brushing snow out of her face.

Thinking quickly, Ashling slips quickly from branch to branch out of the tree until she's down on the ground. Then she runs and takes cover behind some bushes, only to bump right into Malik.

"Ow…" They both mutter, rubbing their foreheads.

"Sorry Malik." Ashling apologizes. "Riley and Jiro chasesd me out of my tree."

"Doesn't bother me." Malik replies, picking up a snowball. "Quiet, someone's coming."

Ashling quickly makes a snowball of her own, peeking through the bushes.

A minute passes and neither Ashling nor Malik see anyone through the bushes that they're hiding behind.

"That's strange," Malik murmurs. "I could have sworn that someone was coming."

Then the two are suddenly jerked backwards and snow is shoved down the back of their coats.

"DAMIAN!" Ashling screams angrily. "I'm going to kill you!"

"Ooo! Death by snowballs! I'm so scared!" Damian says mockingly as Ashling scrambles to her feet with a snowball in her hand. She throws it blinding and smirks when it hits him in the face.

"SNOW WAR!" Max yells as loudly as he can before pitching a snowball at Kaylie.

An all-out war soon commences.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Over in Domino the yami's have begun a snowball fight of their own.

"Bombs away!" Bakura cackles, throwing at snowball at the side of an oncoming vehicle. The snowball hit's the side of the car with a 'thunk' and splatters.

-SCREEEEECH!-

"You stupid kids! What do you think you're doing!"

"BOLT!" Yume yells, abandoning their 'snow fort' to run off into the park. Bakura and Marik soon follow.

Back at the Bakura household, Tama and Ryou are sitting outside all bundled up and are sipping hot chocolate while watching the snow fall.

"First decent snowfall…" Tama breaths contentedly.

Ryou nods in agreement. "And Bakura, Yume, and Marik are using it to terrorize Domino City."

"Did you expect them to do otherwise?" Tama asks, poking one of the large marshmallows in her cup. "This is possibly their favorite season because they can get away with so much. We're just lucky we haven't gotten any phone calls from anyone and that they haven't sent anyone to the Shadow Realm." She says, just as the phone rings inside. Tama sighs. "Spoke to soon…" The youngest Light hands her cup to the paler hikari and then scampers off inside.

Ryou sits there watching the snow drift down until Tama returns five minutes later.

"Who was it?" Ryou asks wearily, hoping against all reason that the call wasn't about the three troublemaking Darks.

Tama smiles and takes her cup from him. "That was Yugi calling to invite us to his and Yami's wedding. They're doing a short ceremony tomorrow. Short, simple, and plain. Téa will be  _so_ disappointed."

Ryou nods. "She will, won't she? She's been planning it ever since we found out that Yugi's pregnant."

"I think she started planning when we found out Mana turned Yugi into a girl." Tama says.

Ryou laughs before taking a sip of his hot chocolate. He finishes it off before speaking again. "She probably has."

Chuckling at the thought, Tama sits down beside Ryou and rests her head on his shoulder. "So peaceful…"

Then the yami's go running by with bewitched snowballs flying after them and a mob of snowball wielding kids chasing them. Ryou and Tama sweat drop.

"Looks like Yugi and Yami got to them first." Tama says once she finds her voice. "And a mob of angry kids."

"Better them than us."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"…happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ashling, happy birthday to you!" All of Ashling's friends plus Malik sing at the lunch table at school, attracting beyond too much attention.

Ashling blushes darkly and tries to duck under the table, but Damian prevents her from doing so.

"Couldn't you all have waited until tonight at the bowling ally or my house?" Ashling grumbles, resisting the urge to smack all of her friends in the head and then go back and beat Damian up as this was all his idea. "Is it your alls goal in life to fully and completely embarrass me before I graduate this year?" She gets grins from her friends and a smirk from Malik and then sighs heavily. "Well if that's how it's going to be…" She smirks at Damian. As I said before, it was him who set the whole thing up. Then she takes a deep breath and yells, "Damian still sleeps with his purple teddy bear!"

Damian's grin turns to one of mixed surprise, horror, and embarrassment. "Ashling!" He hisses. "I told you not to tell anyone that!"

The others at the table laugh and Damian turns bright red.

"You deserve it." Ashling says, her embarrassment forgotten.

Damian groans and hits his heat against the table and leaves it there.

Riley pats him on the back comfortingly. "It's alright, Damian." She says. "We don't thing any less of you."

"Or maybe we do and we just don't want to hurt your feelings by telling you." Max says with a grin. "Relax, Damian. Everyone will have forgotten all about this by tomorrow because someone will have done something more stupid than what Ashling just shouted."

Damian grumbles something under his breath.

"Sorry, what was that?" Max asks.

"I said that Snuffles isn't stupid!" Damian grumbles, lifting his head up slightly off the table.

The others sweat drop at knowing Damian has named his purple teddy.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Over in Domino on January 25th, Joey is finally celebrating his birthday in the evening. He and the others are currently at the park where the pond has finally frozen over so they can go ice skating. Even Yugi is out on the ice, although he's having a lot of trouble keeping his balance.

Bakura, Yume, and Yami have much better balance this year. Strangely, Marik is not anywhere to be seen, which is very unusual.

Later they all go over to Joey and Serenity's apartment to finish up his birthday party with pizza, cake, and ice cream. Marik is still MIA.

"Okay! Present time!" Tama exclaims after they clear all the food away. "Do you have the card, Yugi?"

Yugi nods. "Yeah. Yami, can you get it out of my coat please." He asks his husband.

"Of course, aibou." Yami replies, standing up.

Joey energetically bounces slightly, excited about the prospect of presents.

"Here you go, Joey." Yami says, handing the card to the birthday boy.

Joey takes the card and reads it, laughing when he finds it to be a joke card involving a bad cat. "Darn cat… man, thanks guys."

Duke grins. "Well if we had known you'd just like the card then we wouldn't have gone out and got a gift for you!"

"Ha ha, very funny!" Joey says. "C'mon you guys, what did ya get me?"

Téa carefully pulls a box out from under her coat, which has been laying beside her this whole time. "This is it… it's not just from all of us here though. Kiba and Damian both chipped in."

Joey raises an eyebrow. "You guys shouldn't spend so much on me."

Téa rolls her eyes. _'We didn't…'_ She thinks as she hands the small box to Joey. "Just open it."

Everyone holds their breath as Joey opens the box and looks puzzled at the keys.

"What is…" The blonde's eyes widen. "No way!" He exclaims, catching sight of the Chevrolet symbol.

Serenity pulls back the window curtains so Joey can look down and see his new red Chevrolet truck.

"And truthfully it wasn't that much." Tama says. "There was a raffle of sorts and we all won it for you."

Joe looks around at his friends, not knowing who to hug first. "Thanks guys. You don't know how much dis means ta me. So," He grins and holds up his keys. "who wants ta go for a ride?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Later that evening when Serenity is out getting groceries Joey gets a rather unexpected guest.

The now 19-year-old blonde is sitting there working on his homework when the doorbell rings. He gets up and curses when he trips over the rug Serenity insisted on putting in the living room. The doorbell rings again and Joey yells, "I'm coming!" He once again tries to get up and succeeds this time. Then he walks over to the door and runs a hand through his hair before opening the door.

Mai stands there dressed in her usual outfit, her hands behind her back.

Joey looks at her in surprise for a moment and then remembers his manners and invites her in. Mai declines, saying she's only going to be there for a minute.

"I just wanted to wish you happy birthday and… to give you this." The violet-eyed blonde says, handing Joey a box about an inch thick. "So, happy birthday, Joey. And… I'll see you later. Maybe." She gives him a half-hearted smile and then walks down the hall away from Joey.

Moments after she leaves Joey knocks himself out of his stupor and closes the door while examining the gift. His feet take him back over to the couch, making sure to step over the edge of the rug. He sits back down as he begins the gently unwrap the present. His mind completely comes out of it's haze when he has the whole thing uncovered. A box of rather expensive, but delicious chocolates sits on his lap with a small note.

_Love, me._

Underneath that is a phone number. Mai's phone number.

Joey smiles. _'Looks like I have a chance.'_

The door opens and Serenity steps in, struggling with the bags of groceries she has. "Joey?" She gently calls. "Joey, can you help me?"

Joey jumps, surprised at his sister's sudden entrance. "Yeah, I'm coming." He says, setting the box down on the table beside his homework.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Back over in Virginia, Holly and Ashling are in the living room with their rock music cranked up while they work on some project for school.

The doorbell rings at a time when they're both in the middle of gluing something.

"Ishtar!" Ashling yells over the music. "Can you please get the door? Mine and Holly's hands are glues at the moment!"

Malik walks out of the kitchen where he was making himself a snack. "Turn down the music first."

Ashling frowns and uses her foot to turn the music down. "There."

Malik rolls his eyes and then opens the door, falling into a shocked state when he sees who it is.

"HIKARI-PRETTY!" (insert little hearts floating everywhere)

Holly and Ashling look up from their project when they hear this loud squeal. They both sweat drop when the tall, spiky-haired blonde boy standing at the door tackles Malik to the floor.

"OW! Marik! Get off!" Malik yells. Apparently his shock has worn off.

Ishizu comes downstairs when she hears the yell. "Malik, what on ear- Marik! What are you doing here?"

Marik sits up with a struggling Malik. "Mariku came to see his hikari-pretty!"

"Will you let go!" Malik yells before he's finally able to escape from Marik's grip.

Marik's darker lilac eyes tear up and he sniffles and then begins crying. "Hikari-pretty doesn't love Mariku any more!"

Ishizu, Malik, and Ashling sweat drop and Cheyenne looks at them, from her spot on the stairs, like they're all crazy. Which they are. Especially Holly who giggles and says, "Aww! He's so kawaii!"

' _Oh Ra no…'_ Malik groans in his mind.  _'My worst nightmare has come true! Marik and Holly meeting!'_


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter 12: Suma_

Months have now passed and it's April. Marik is still over in Virginia and is explained to be Malik's 'brother'. Holly appears to think he's the cutest thing to ever set foot in their hometown, proclaiming his 'hotness' ranks over Hiei's from Yu Yu Hakusho and Sesshoumaru's from Inuyasha.

Ashling, Riley, Holly, Kaylie, Jiro, Max, and Damian have figured out a semi-usual schedule concerning the café. For a while their shifts had been irregular because of Anime Club (1) meetings, Riley's volleyball practice, and Max's baseball games.

Marik is left alone at the Phoenix's house with just Ishizu and Mrs. Phoenix to watch him while Malik, Ashling, and Cheyenne are at school. This makes Malik extremely nervous on school days as he has to hope that Marik listens to Ishizu and the rules he has laid down.

Damian is currently refusing to come over to the Phoenix's house because Marik "scares" him.  _Nothing_ scares Damian. Holly on the other hand happily goes over to visit Ashling and Malik in hopes she gets a glimpse of or gets to talk to Marik. She's got it bad…

All the seniors- Ashling, Riley, Holly, Tabby, and Malik- are preparing for the end of their last year of school. Ashling, Riley, and Damian all got a school hoodie and Holly got a school ring. Tabby has ordered a yearbook.

For college, Riley and Damian are looking into art schools in Virginia, Holly and Tabby have both decided to go to a local college, and Ashling is still undecided. Malik can't find anything on any of Japans schools, and his internet has been down so he can't write to Tama for information or look up information, so he's going to wait until he gets back to Domino City.

So that's what has been happening in Virginia. Nothing too exciting, huh?

Over in Domino City things have been a little more exciting.

First off, Yugi is due any day now and Yami is even more overprotective than he was before. Because of this, Bakura and Yume have been "permanently" banned from the Muto house, but strangely enough the two could care less. Even more odd is that the two haven't been pulling any pranks lately.

Tama comments that they are finally growing up. Yami just says that they are growing soft. Yami's comment sparks the ex-Dragon Guardian's temper and therefore gets chased around the neighborhood.

Other than that, the entire group- minus Serenity and Mokuba- are preparing for the end of their last year of school as well. Tama is keeping her job with Kaiba Corp, so she sees no need to look into college. Similarly, Seto and Duke aren't going to college, but that's only because they already have their own companies. Yugi and Yami are both going to be running the game shop. Téa is getting ready for her move to New York City, where she still wants to go to study dance. Tristan, Ryou, and Joey are all going to go to a local college.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tama carefully studies the 3-D model of the Duelist Academy that's on her laptop, ever once in a while making changes. Her first change is to change the state of the lowest dorm, currently called Dorm Red, from a shack to more of a run-down, but homey, house-like building. The next thing she does is bring down the quality of the highest dorm, Dorm Blue. She finds nothing wrong with the middle dorm, Dorm Yellow, and leaves it be.

Then she turns her attention to the colorless 'school' building. Decided it needs to be bright with the colors of each of the dorms, she gets to work on "painting" it. After much trial and error, Tama finally gets the colors the way she want them. Now she scans around and comes to the gust house which is a pale blue color. She leaves it alone, knowing better than to mess with Seto's personal building.

Tama sighs and leans back in her chair, stretching out sore muscles.

The phone rings as she goes back to her work, this time to work on the inside of the buildings.

"I'll get it!" Ryou calls out. The white-haired boy picks up the phone right before the third ring.

Tama continues on with her work, figuring it's someone calling to say that the yami's have done  _something_ because they haven't done  _anything_ lately. She starts back with Dorm Red to work on the rooms, figuring they'll start off with one person in each room and go up to three in each room. The same thing applies to the other dorms.

"Tama!" Ryou yells, running into the room with the cordless phone. "Tama, Yugi's gone in labor! Yami's calling from the hospital!"

Tama looks up at Ryou in shock. "You sure?"

Ryou nods. "Yes. Yami said he's calling everyone else and that he wants us all over there."

Tama quickly saves her work and exits off it. "Well what are we waiting for! Lets go!"

Ryou tells Yami that they're coming and then quickly hangs up the phone.

The two Lights then rush around trying to find their yami's. Tama gives up after less than two minutes and yells for the two. The four of them then cram into the VW Bug and rush off to the hospital. They run into Joey and Serenity on their way to meet Yami, and run the rest of the way with the two siblings.

Téa, Duke, and Tristan soon joining them, completing the main part of their rag-tag group. Now all they can do is wait and try to calm Yami down before he has a heart attack.

Hours pass and several people have fallen asleep while waiting. Tama, Serenity, and Ryou, needing something to do, have gone out to get food that is not from a vending machine or from the hospital cafeteria.

They return half and hour later with the food everyone wants. The three hand out the food and Tama has to force Yami to take the fries that she got for him.

_April 13, 12:01_.

Joey, Tristan, Tama, and Ryou are asleep. Yami is once again pacing. Serenity and Duke are playing tic-tac-toe on a napkin. Bakura and Yume are cuddled up in a chair watching Yami pace.

The door opens, catching the five's attention.

"Mr. Muto?" The doctor asks.

Yami abruptly stops pacing and turns to the doctor. "Yes? How is h-she?" He asks quickly.

"Your wife is fine." The doctor replies. "You can come see her and your daughter now if you wish."

Yami nods, not trusting his voice, and follows the doctor back to see Yugi.

Serenity then turns to the task of waking the others up to tell them the news.

"A daughter…" Tama murmurs. "Yugi must be so happy."

"When can we see them?" Joey asks, yawning.

Serenity sighs. "We have to wait until Yami says we can. Give them some time alone, Joey. This is a big deal for them."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Yami quietly walks into the room that Yugi is in and walks over to his aibou. Yugi smiles weakly up at him, the baby sleeping peacefully in his arms.

"Hi Yami." He whispers. "You want to hold her?"

Numbly, Yami nods and soon finds himself with his daughter in his arms. "She…" He finds breathing difficult for a moment. "She's beautiful, Yugi."

"I chose Suma (2) for her name." Yugi says. "She needs a middle name now." He looks pointedly at Yami.

Yami sits down on the edge of the bed, looking in awe at his daughter. "Yuki." He murmurs, recalling one of the names that Yugi suggested.

"Yuki…" Yugi whispers softly. "Suma Yuki Muto. I like it."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Days later half the group is over at the Game Shop to visit Yugi, Yami, and Suma.

"You're going to spoil her!" Yugi says in amusement, watching his cousin shower Suma with affection.

Tama grins. "I plan to." She says. "She's just so cute!"

Ryou, Yugi, Yami, and Joey all sweat drop while Serenity nods in agreement.

"She's looks like a mini-you." Serenity comments. "Except she has amethyst eyes instead of lilac."

Tama shakes her head. "No, she looks like Yugi did when he was a baby." She says, handing Suma over to Ryou.

Yugi groans. "Please Tama, not the baby pictures! Some of those are really embarrassing!"

Tama laughs. "Aww! But you were so cute then!"

Yugi gives Tama a pleading look. "Please Tama, don't show everyone those pictures! If you do then I'll show them your baby pictures!" He threatens.

"Okay, I won't show them." Yugi gives in. "But me, Yume, and Ryou can always tell embarrassing stories about you when you were little."

"And I can tell everyone about the trouble your hyperactivity got us into." Tama replies. "And Ryou's rebellious side."

Ryou gives Suma back to Yugi when she starts fussing. "Please don't. I really don't need to re-live that."

"Then no embarrassing stories." Tama says simply, turning her attention to Bakura and Yume who have been in a whispered argument this whole time. "What's with you two today? You're being unusually quiet."

Bakura and Yume look up almost guiltily.

"It's nothing." Yume says quickly. "Nothing important."

Bakura snorts. "Nothing important? Of course this is important, Yume! How is it not!"

"Shut up, Bakura!" Yume hisses.

"One of you tell us what's going on." Yami says, eying his fellow Darks.

Bakura takes a deep breath and speaks before Yume can stop him. "Yume's pregnant."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Peace

Things have calmed down in both Domino City and Virginia. The internet at the Phoenix's is still down and Malik and Ashling haven't had time to go to the library, so Malik, Ishizu, and Marik haven't heard about Suma yet.

Both Ashling and Malik have noticed their bond growing stronger. It's now to the point they can always feel one another's emotions, where before it was just particularly strong emotions, For Ashling there's sometimes a nagging feeling; a third emotion that's in the back of her mind. She determinedly ignores it.

The two can force the link into a strained submission, which makes it so they can separate their feelings, and they find it doesn't take as much concentration as they thought.

It's now a Saturday in March, and Ashling, Holly, Riley, and Kaylie are finally having the sleepover that they've been planning for weeks. The four girls are crowded into the downstairs living room already wearing their pajama's despite the fact that it's only five o'clock.

Ashling's wearing Curious George pajama bottoms and an oversized blue t-shirt. Holly's wearing black pajama's with frogs decorating it. Riley's wearing soft purple colored pants and a black t-shirt. Kaylie's wearing a pale blue shirt that reads "Fluffy's Princess" with a picture of Sesshoumaru on it and dark blue pants with crescent moons decorating them.

Stacked up neatly beside the PS2 are tons of Anime videos. Of course, they won't get to all of them, but they're going to try.

"…and then Fluffy can be like, 'Noooooo!' and then get all serious again and point at Inuyasha and say, 'You will die!'" Kaylie says energetically.

The other three girls laugh at Kaylie's idea for a story.

"So Holly," Kaylie starts, having thought of a new subject. "what's with your interest in Malik's brother?"

Holly sighs. "I really don't know." She says, sounding a little disappointed. "He's just… he's kind of like me, I guess. The whole extreme-mood-swing-bouncy-hyperactivity-ness thing. And he's cute." She adds as an afterthought.

"Why thank you!" Marik comments, popping up over the couch. Riley and Kaylie jump, Ashling hisses in surprise, and Holly squeals, looking pleadingly at Ashling who sighs.

"Go on…"

"Yay!" Holly exclaims, jumping up and running around the couch to glomp Marik.

The other three, and Malik who's coming down the stairs to see what trouble Marik is causing, sweat drop at the sigh. (Holly's about a foot shorter than Marik, so she's hugging him around his middle instead of around the neck like she does to Damian.)

"Phoenix, your friend is insane." Malik comments.

"And your brother is insane. Is that not worse?" Ashling retorts easily. "And anyway, he looks like he could care less."

Marik smirks. "I feel loved now." He comments, mock-glaring at his hikari, who snorts.

"Holly, let go of him and come back over here." Riley says, patting the spot beside her.

Both Holly and Marik pout.

"C'mon, Hol. We need to get started on these Anime videos." Ashling says, picking up one of the DNAngel DVD's. "You get to see Dark and eventually Krad!"

Holly considers this for a moment and then shakes her head 'no'. "Nuh-uh."

The others once again sweat drop.

Eventually, Ashling and Malik work together to tug the two apart. Then Malik drags Marik upstairs and Ashling pulls Holly back over to their "area".

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

After watching a few of their Anime DVD's, the girls decide to take a break. Ashling gets up and makes popcorn while Riley, Holly, and Kaylie vote on what game to play. They choose the all-time classic- Truth or Dare.

Ashling returns with a large bowl of popcorn and the game begins.

"I'll start." Kaylie says, handing Riley a pen and a pad of paper so she can record everything. "Holly, truth or dare?"

"Dare." Holly replies, grabbing a handful of popcorn and eating it.

Kaylie smirks. "Alright, I dare you to run upstairs and give Marik a kiss."

Holly shrugs and swallows the popcorn. "Okay, I will."

Ashling whistles. "Go Holly!"

The reddish-brown haired girl smiles at Ashling and stands up. Then she walks out of their area and goes up the stairs. She returns less than five minutes later with a blush firmly in place.

Riley, Ashling, and Kaylie laugh, not wanting to know what Marik did to embarrass their friend.

"Okay Riley." Holly says, sitting down. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth." Riley replies.

Holly grins, already knowing what she's going to say. "Alright, it's your funeral. Is it try that you have a crush on Damian and if so, for how long?"

Riley's face turns bright red. "Yes. Ever since sixth grade…"

All three of the other girls start giggling.

"Riley and Dami' sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Ashling sings. Then Holly and Kaylie both join in with the last bit, "First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes Dami' with a baby carriage!"

The three further collapse into giggles and Riley turns an even brighter shade of red.

"Ashling, your turn." Riley says, half-irritably once the giggling has stopped. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare." Ashling responds, still trying to control herself. "Do your worst!"

Riley smiles almost evilly. "Oh trust me- I will." She wracks her brain for the perfect dare for Ashling. "I've got it."

Ashling subconsciously gulps, not at all liking the look in Riley's eyes.

"For the rest of the night and all day tomorrow until midnight, I dare you to flirt with Malik whenever he's in the room."

Silence.

"What?" Ashling shrieks loudly.

" _Shh_!" Holly, Riley, and Kaylie automatically hiss.

Riley sits back, satisfied with what she's come up with. "You heard me."

"Vixen," Ashling starts, using Riley's old nickname. "you are one psychotically evil person."

"Aren't I just?" Riley replies, the picture of innocence.

"Man," Kaylie whispers to Holly. "I never knew Riley could be so… so…"

"Evil." Holly supplies. "Yeah, neither did I."

The game continues for a while until they decide it's time to watch more Anime DVD's.

Halfway through the 3rd Inuyasha movie Mr. Phoenix comes home with pizza from Pizza Hut. The four girls files into the kitchen to get the pizza and then go back into the living room and start watching the movie again.

Then Malik and Marik come downstairs and Ashling and Holly both blush. Ashling because of her dare and Holly because Marik winked at her.

Riley and Kaylie exchange amused glances, both thinking the same thing.  _'This is going to be good.'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Riley laughs at Ashling's attempts at flirting when the younger blonde tosses her a pleading look.

"Phoenix, are you feeling alright?" Malik finally asks, annoyed by her behavior. He sets his slice of cheese pizza down on his plate. "You're acting weirder than usual."

Ashling glares at Riley. "It's her fault! She dared me to flirt with yo-" Her eyes go wide and she claps her hands over her mouth. _'Shit!'_

Riley sighs. "Ash, you go realize that you're not suppose to tell him."

Malik raises an eyebrow. "So that's what's been going on. You were playing Truth or Dare."  _'I think I'm starting to hate that game…'_

A wave of amusement washes over Ashling.  _'He thinks it's funny, does he?'_

_Annoyance. Half-anger._

Malik's eyes widen for a moment. 'I thought I closed off the link! Damn, it's growing stronger already!'

Marik looks back and forth between his hikari and the strange strawberry blonde girl.  _'What's going on?'_ He studies Ashling for a moment.  _'She likes hikari-pretty?_ My  _hikari-pretty.'_ His eyes widen when he catches sight of the symbol on the back of her hand. _'She's Bastet's chosen! But Bastet hasn't chosen anyone in way over 3000 years!'_ He narrows his eyes _. 'Mariku no like this. Not at all. She's too close to my hikari.'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"You like him, don't you?" Riley asks early the next morning before anyone else is awake.

"Who?" Ashling questions sleepily, yawning.

Riley "accidentally" throws her pillow and it smacks Ashling in the head, waking her up. "I'm talking about Malik, Ash."

Ashling looks at Riley like she's insane.  _'How- how can she always tell!'_ "What the heck are you talking about, Riley? Me, like  _Ishtar_?" She snorts. "Yeah right."

Riley gives Ashling a knowing look. "Ash, don't lie to me."

' _Damn human lie detector…'_

"I could tell when you were going through with your dare that you really didn't mind." Riley continues. "Care to explain why you're so fixated on hating the poor boy? He hasn't done anything except live here."

Ashling hesitates for a moment before she says, "Ri, you're going to completely flip out when I tell you this…" She then goes on to explain why the Ishtar's are staying with them and how both her and Malik haven't gotten along from the start.

Riley sits there and listens, shocked by the news. _'All this time and she never told me… I figured they hated one another for a reason. Well, they have a reason, it's just not a very good one.'_ "And… now?" She prods.

Ashling sighs heavily. "I really don't know. I mean, we get along pretty well now and he's really funny…"

Riley raises an eyebrow when Ashling begins rambling like she always does when she's starting to get distressed. 'Damn, she's got it bad. It's like Holly's obsession with Marik times ten, but at least Ash knows Malik better than Holly knows Marik.' "Ash," She interrupts her friend. "you've got it bad." She informs her.

Ashling turns red and looks away.

Neither of them notice Malik sitting on the stairs listening in.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Two days later Ashling is walking across the living room on her way to the kitchen when she bumps into her cat. Sleepily she murmurs a "sorry boy", not at all expected the flame-point Himalayan cat to reply.

" **Hey lass, watch where you be going!"** The cat snaps in an Irish accent.

Ashling freezes, her stormy blue eyes widening. She slowly turns to face her cat, fearing for her sanity. "W-what?"

" **I said to watch where you be going! What are you, deaf?"**  He asks, miffed.

Ashling grips the back of the couch for stability. "I- I don't feel so well." She mutters, suspiciously eying her cat. "This has to be a dream. Cat's can't talk!"

" **That's where you be wrong, lass,"**  The cat says, jumping up onto the back of the couch. **"It be you humans that can't talk properly! So it should be me who's all confused."**

"I'm not insane." Ashling mutters, closing her eyes. "The cat isn't talking. La la la, I can't hear anything! I'm not going insane!"

" **Hey lass! Lass!"**

Ashling ignores her cat, choosing to continue muttering under her breath with her eyes closed and her hands clutching the back of the couch for support.

" **Alright then, lass. You asked for it."**  The cat says, extending his claws.

Ashling yelps and then peers down at the shallow cut, her eyes watering. "Mou, what was that for!"

"Ashling, you freak." Cheyenne says, coming down the stairs dressed in a pink shirt and pale blue jeans. "Stop meowing and crap, the cat can't understand you."

Both Ashling and the cat hiss at Cheyenne.

Ashling's sister gives Ashling a weird look before putting on her shoes. "Tell mom I'm going out." She says before opening the door and leaving without a backwards glance.

Ashling sighs and looks down at her cat. "You know what, Allan? I think we're going to get along just fine."

Allan purrs.  **"Yes we shall. Although there are a few things that I'd like to see changed."**

Ashling chuckles and picks Allan up, allowing him to rest comfortably in her arms. "I'm sure there is. Lets hear them."

" **Well first of all, I want that abomination of a creature out of my house."**  Allan says, inclining his head toward the year-old seal-point Siamese sleeping in the catnip-ridden cat bed.

"Sorry boy, he's here to stay." Ashling says apologetically. "I can rig up something for my room so that you have a safe place if you'd like."

" **No, he gets in there."**  Allan replies, annoyed.  **"Next,…"**

Ashling continues listening in amusement as the cat's wanted changes grow steadily more ridiculous.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"This isn't going to work!" Malik hisses to Riley and Max. "I told you, we don't like each other!"

It's Wednesday afternoon and Riley has been plotting since her conversation with Ashling four days ago. She's gotten Max in on her plan and they're now putting it into action.

"Just ask her!" Max says almost snappishly. "She's been dying to go and now's the perfect time! We'd go with her but all of us are busy for the next few weekends."

"Ask her to go with you on Saturday." Riley urges. "She's got to work at the café on Sunday."

"Shh! Here she comes!" Max hisses.

The three fall strangely quiet, which earns them a weird look from Ashling.

Riley nudges Malik, who shoots her a glare.

"What are you up to, Riley?" Ashling asks, looking at one of her best friend in suspicion, dropping her stuff in a heap beside the table but setting her Anime folder gently down onto the table.

"Nothing at all, Ash." Riley says, an innocent smile on her face. "We hit a rather odd topic and it fizzled off suddenly."

Ashling eyes them for a moment, trying to decide if they're up to anything remotely evil and then remembers that that's Damian's area of expertise and sits down.

"So, umm, Phoenix?"

Ashling doesn't look up from her lunchbox as she replies with, "Nani?"

"I heard about this Fairy Stone National Park place around here and I," Malik takes a breath in an attempt to quell his nervousness. "Iwaswonderingifyou'dliketogowithme."

Riley and Max both inwardly groan, Malik mentally slaps himself, and Ashling's jaw drops.

"W-what?" Ashling stutters, her mind reeling from shock. _'He didn't just- but- how-? Riley! She- Oh I'm going to get her back for this one.'_

Malik tries again, this time with success. "I was wondering if you would like to go with me on Saturday."

To his surprise, and Riley and Max's relief, Ashling smiles. "I think I'd like that… Malik."

Malik's heart skips a beat. "Really?"

Ashling nods. "Yeah. Saturday, huh? I suppose a little birdie told you that I'm working on Sunday?"

Riley grins and gives a short wave, which makes Max and Ashling roll their eyes.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

On Saturday afternoon Malik and Ashling are walking around the park. Ashling has a little pouch that she's putting the small brown colored cross-shaped stones in.

"Hey Malik," She says after slipping another stone into the pouch. "thanks for coming here with me. I really do appreciate it." She smiles up at him.

Malik shrugs. "I just wanted to do something nice. If we're going to be stuck together, we've got to get along, right?"

Ashling laughs. "Yeah, you're right." A stone catches her attention and she kneels down and picks it up. "Hmm…" She stands up, studying it and then looks at Malik. "Give me your hand." She says.

"What?"

"You heard me." Ashling says. "Give me your hand. I'm not going to hurt you or anything, if that's what you're thinking."

Malik snorts. "You couldn't if you tried, Ashling." He doesn't notice he said her name until he notices her looking at him in shock. "What?"

"You said my name." Ashling says. "Now," She steps forward and grabs Malik's hand. Then she drops the small stone into his hand. "here. You need a memento of some sort too."

When Ashling's not looking, Malik looks down at the small strangely golden-brown stone in his hand.  _'It's an ankh.'_ He notices in amazement. ' _But didn't Ashling say that only… well, it is a type of cross, if you think about it. It's an Egyptian cross.'_ He glances at Ashling, looks peering up at the blue sky searching for the eagle she swore she spotting earlier.  _'You know, I don't think I'll mind being stuck with her.'_


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14: Water_

"Can they please come with us this year?" Ashling begs. "This is possibly our last summer together!"

Mrs. Phoenix sighs. "All right. But they'll have to pay to get in."

Ashling cheers. "Yay! Thanks mommy!" She says, kissing her mom on the cheek before running upstairs to call her friends and tell Malik and Marik the news.

It's June now, so school has been out for quite a while. They've had to extend their list of staff members at the café since so many people have been coming. All of the new staff members were members of the Anime club at school, so they all know one another.

Because it's June it's time for the annual Gryffon-Phoenix trip to Wet n' Wild water world in North Carolina. This year Malik, Ishizu, and Marik are coming and so Damian, Riley, Max, Kaylie, Tabby, Jiro, and Holly are able to come. Usually it's only Damian because he stays with them during summer vacation.

"They can come! They can come!" Ashling exclaims, bounding into the room like a Chihuahua on crack.

Malik and Marik watch in amusement from the safety of the blow-up mattress as Ashling skips across the room and picks up her silver and black portable phone to call her friends. Fifteen minutes later she has talked to each one of her friends. Damian, Riley, Max, and Holly are able to come, but Kaylie, Jiro, and Tabby are all busy.

Ashling sighs happily as she sets down her phone and Malik sits down on the bed beside her.

Marik almost growls when his hikari puts his arm around Ashling's shoulder.

"So who's coming?" Malik asks.

"Damian, Riley, Max, and Holly." Ashling replies. "I'm so glad they're finally able to come this year. I've been trying to get Riley, Max, and Holly to come for the past two years, but they've either been busy or this has been a 'only family' thing. That doesn't really explain why Damian has always been able to come though…"

A knock comes at the door and Malik springs away from Ashling and back to his bed.

"Ashling?" Ishizu questions through the door. "Damian is here and wants to talk to you about something."

"Coming!" Ashling says, getting up. She walks across the room to the door and walks out, closing the door behind her.

Marik fiddles with the end of a pillow for a moment before looking over at his Light. "You like her, don't you?" It's not a question.

Malik shrugs. "I guess. I mean, we get along a lot better than we did, but neither of us want to get married or anything. We're still trying to get out of this thing." He studies Marik for a moment. "Why do you ask?"

Marik shakes his head. "No particular reason. Just curious." He replies. "So, you think the pharaoh and midget pharaoh are getting hell from their kid?"

"If they didn't they'd have to be the luckiest parents on earth." Malik replies. "You think it's a boy or girl?"

Marik thinks for a minute on which one he thinks would give the two more trouble. "A girl."

Malik snorts. "You're just saying that because you think they'd have more trouble with a girl despite the fact that their closet family member is their girl cousin and that there's several girls over in Domino willing to help them."

Marik blinks. "You know, I hadn't thought of that… curse them."

Malik just rolls his eyes.  _'That's my idiot yami for you. He never completely thinks things through.'_

"I heard that."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The day of their trip comes before they know it and everyone is gathered at Ashling's grandparents house, which is the starting point. Ashling and Cheyenne's two cousins and their aunt and uncle are there, so Ashling gets to introduce them to her guests except for Damian who they already know.

"So, are we ready to go or not?" Cheyenne asks.

"Chill, brat." Damian says, already annoyed at the second youngest girl in the house. (Tullia, their cousin, is younger.) "We've got to get everything organized." He then leans over to Riley and whispers, "I swear if I have to ride in the same car as her I. Will. Die."

Riley chuckles. "It would be just your luck if you got stuck with her, wouldn't it?"

Ashling's grandfather pulls out one of his handy maps at this time and Mrs. Phoenix opens up a notebook and takes a pencil from the jar on the table.

"Alright. There are seventeen of us. The cars that seat the most people are the van, which can seat up to seven, and the three trucks, which can seat up to five. The three Mazda's can each seat four comfortably." Ashling's grandmother, Mrs. Gryffon (1), says. "I'll be driving the van. Cheyenne and Tullia can be with me…"

Slowly they get everything worked out. Ashling's grandparents, Cheyenne, Tullia, and Ashling's parents will be in the van. Ashling's aunt, uncle, and older cousin Caragh wil be in their truck, despite Caragh's protests about wanting to drive herself. Damian is driving his eye-catching truck and will have Max, Malik, and Marik with him, a fact he's not the happiest about but he admits it's better than being stuck in a car with Cheyenne and Tullia. Ashling is driving her Mazda and has Riley, Holly, and Ishizu with her.

Soon the large group is on their way to Wet n' Wild, which is roughly a three hour drive. Each vehicle has a walkie talkie so that they can communicate with one another.

In just one hour they stop three times for a bathroom break; twice of which was for the two brats in the van. The third time was for Mrs. Phoenix because she drank too much coffee that morning.

They finally make it there a little after ten and finally get into the park fifteen minutes after that. Amazingly, the group manages to find a shaded area that's not too crowded to put their stuff.

Cheyenne and Tullia are the first to rush off after putting on minimal amounts of sunscreen. Ashling's mom and aunt go after them, determined to get the two to put more on.

Caragh is the next to run off, having spotting one of her friends from college.

This leaves Ashling's group, her dad, uncle, grandfather, and grandmother in the shaded area.

Riley's wearing a forest green bikini, Max is wearing dark red swim trunks, Damian's are purple, Holly's bikini is pale yellow with light blue polka dots, Ashling's bikini is black, and both Malik and Marik are wearing navy blue swim trunks and a t-shirt.

Damian's green eyes glitter in delight as he looks excitably around the park. "Man, they add something new every year… C'mon Riley! I'll give you a tour!" He says, grabbing Riley's arm once he notices she's done putting on sunscreen. He then proceeds to pull Riley toward the rides.

"Hey!" Max shouts, shoving the bottle of sunscreen into Ashling's hands. "Oi! Come back here with my sister! Damian!"

Ashling and Holly both laugh when he chases after the two in his quest to protect Riley from Damian.

"I think it's going to be Damian who needs protection, not the other way around." Ashling comments, her voice amused, as she pulls out a bottle of high SPF sunscreen from her bag.

Malik almost groans at the sight of the bottle. 'Great… she's going to be like Tama and Ryou and apply a bunch of strong sunscreen just so she won't get even a little tan.'

"So… wanna go exploring, Marik?" Holly questions.

Marik glances at his hikari before shrugging. "Sure."

Holly smiles and grabs Marik's hand.

Ashling and Malik watch as the two walk off to explore all the rides and things to do.

"So Malik," Ashling's grandmother starts.

Ashling stiffens, not at all liking the tone her grandmother used.  _'Please don't ruin today. Please, grandmother, don't.'_

"may I ask why you're wearing a shirt?" She continues.

"I don't see how that's any of your business!" Ashling snaps, her eyes flashing bright crystal blue for a moment. She then grabs Malik's sleeve and leads him off in the direction Holly and Marik went, fed up with her grandmother's hostility.

Ishizu watches the two walk away with a knowing look on her face. 'It's as I though. Bu creating a strong bond between the two I sped up the true bonding process. By now the link should be stronger than that of the yami's and hikari's.' She closes her eyes for a moment. 'It shall prove useful for what I have foreseen.'

A golden object around her neck glitters. On closer inspection it can be seen that it is the Millennium Necklace.

'Especially since the Millennium Items are returning. Mine is but the first.'

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Later that night back at home, Ashling and Malik are sitting on her bed quietly talking so they don't wake up Marik, who's snoring rather loudly. Ashling's wearing one of her brother's old NASCAR t-shirts and a pair of blue plaid soft pants. Malik's also wearing a t-shirt and a pair of soft pants.

"I'm really sorry about my grandmother." Ashling says for what seems like the millionth time that day.

"It's fine, Ashling. Really." Malik reassures her.

Ashling sighs and rests her head on Malik's shoulder.

"Um, Ash-"

-Scratch scratch-  **"Lass! Let me in! The abomination is driving me insane!"**

Ashling sweat drops and gets up, not noticing Malik's confused look. "Get in here, Allan." She says, opening the door.

" **Close it, quick!"** Allan shouts, dashing in.

Ashling quickly completes before the "abomination"(3) has a chance to follow. "Allan, you're a dork."

" **Well lass, you're not the one who has to avoid the runt like the plague."** Allan replies, jumping up onto her bed.

Ashling snorts. "Right. There's no way he's worse than Cheyenne."

"Ashling?" Malik questions. "Are you talking to the cat?"

Ashling blushes as she sits back down beside Malik. "Erm… yeah. I guess it's a side effect of being Bastet's chosen or something. So, what were you going to say before Allan interrupted?"

Malik sighs, almost dreading what he's about to do. "I know you're probably curious about the whole me not taking off my shirt thing." 'Okay, that came out a little weird, but there's really not another way to say it.'

"I was a little curious." Ashling admits.

" **You're digging yourself into a hole."** Allan comments.

Ashling ignores the cat.

"It's a little complicated so it'd probably be easier to just show you." Malik says.

Ashling squeaks when Malik begins taking off his shirt and Allan jumps off the bed and runs under it yelling,  **"Code red! Code red! Abort!"**

Ashling's partial mortification turns to shock when Malik turns around so his back is facing her. "My god…" She murmurs. "Who-…?" She stumbles over her words as she hesitantly reaches a hand out toward him. She swallows. "Who did this to you?"

"My father." Malik replies, flinching slightly when Ashling's cold hand light brushes one of the scars on his back.

"That's so horrible." Ashling murmurs, tracing her finger over the hieroglyphics. "But… why? Why did he do this?"

Malik closes his eyes, fighting back the painful memories. "It was the Tomb Keeper's initiation. I was ten."

"Oh Malik-"

"Don't." He says sharply. "I don't want your pity. I get enough pity from other people as it is."

Ashling sighs and takes her hand off of Malik's back. "I'm not going to treat you any differently, Malik. But  _nobody_ should have to go through that."

Malik stiffins when something warm and soft touches his back. "Ashling, what…?"

"I know I can never make them go away but…" Ashling smiles weakly. "I'm kissing them to make them better."

Malik turns around and looks at Ashling in something akin to amazement. "Sometimes you remind me of a little kid."

"And that's a bad thing?" Ashling asks, relieved that the pain coming from Malik's side of the link is gone. "I just don't like seeing people upset. My childish ways tend to make people laugh, or so Riley and Damian tell me." She blinks in surprise when Malik hugs her and then her smile fades away as she wraps her arms around him and hugs him back.

' _No one should have to go through what you did. Especially not you.'_


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15: July_

"Hello Phoenix family!" Damian loudly greets, opening the front door to the Phoenix's home.

"Hello, Damian." Mrs. Phoenix kindly greets. "Ashling, Malik, and Ishizu are upstairs. Could you please bring them down here?" She asks before turning around to see Marik struggling with several bags and boxes. "Oh my… Marik dear, you didn't have to bring them all up at one time!"

Damian quickly runs upstairs before Mrs. Phoenix can ask him to help Marik. He pauses outside the door when he hears voices. Ignoring the voice in his head, which sounds suspiciously like Riley, that's telling him that eavesdropping is a bad thing to do, he presses his ear close to the door and listens in.

"…it's just complicated." Ashling says. "I mean, we're getting along and everything, but I'd feel better deciding this in our own time. Not because we have to."

"That is understandable." Ishizu says. "What's your opinion, Malik?"

"I feel the same."

"Alright, now you just need to have a reason why you're coming to Domino with us."

Damian's jaw drops. 'What! But she can't leave! That'd be breaking our circle!'

"That's easy." Ashling replies. "I've always wanted to visit Japan and this way I'd be safe and have a place to stay."

Deciding he's heard enough, Damian puts on a fixed smile and opens the door. "Knock knock!" He greets cheerfully.

"Who's there?" Ashling replies, able to recall their childhood greeting.

"Bug." Damian replies, now grinning for real.

"Bug who?"

"Bug you!" Damian laughs.

Ashling snorts. "Hey Dami', I think we really need a new greeting."

"How about 'tickle bug'?" Damian suggests.

Ashling gives Damian a look that clearly says you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me.

"'Bug you' it is then!" Damian says happily. "C'mon you guys, Mrs. Phoenix wants us downstairs."

"You might as well call her 'mom' with all the time you spend here." Ashling comments, getting up. "We should get down there though. Didn't we send Marik down to help me- my mom?"  _'I'm going to kill that cat!'_

"Yeah, he was having a little trouble with some bags and boxes when I came in." Damian mentions.

"And you didn't help him!" Ashling asks, bewildered. "Damian!" She rushes past her best friend to go downstairs to help Marik.

"I'll never understand how she doesn't go insane around the nutty psycho…" Damian grumbles, shoving his hands into his pockets.

The Phoenix's, Ishtar's, and Damian soon head over to Ashling's grandparent's house for the annual Fourth of July get together in which the adults get a little drunk, they all stay up late, watch fireworks, and there is, of course, the usual karaoke machine set up.

Late that night while Damian is singing 'Beer for my Horses' on the bottom deck with Ashling's younger cousin, Neal, Ashling goes up to the top deck where she finds Malik leaning against the rail looking out over the lake. Fireworks explode in the distance and the moon shines brightly overhead.

"Hey." Ashling says, walking up beside him.

"Hey." Malik murmurs.

Ashling sighs and rests her head on Malik's shoulder. "So, what's been bothering you?"

"Nothing." Malik replies.

Ashling gives Malik a look. "Malik…"

Malik sighs. "It's just… I haven't been able to contact my cousin Tama so she has no idea that we're going to Domino in a few days. I have no idea what's been going on over there either. She's probably worried sick and has been overworking like she always does when she's upset."

"You'll find out in a few days, Malik. In the meantime, just relax. You shouldn't panic over something that might not be true." Ashling says. "Now why don't we go on downstairs. Damian wants me to sing a duet with him."

"You go on ahead." Malik replies. "I'm going to stay up here for a while."

Ashling sighs and then stands on her tip-toes to give Malik a kiss on the cheek. "Come down when you're ready."

Malik nods and Ashling walks away and begins going down the stairs. She pauses and glances back after hitting the third step, purposely sending a wave of emotions to him.

_Anxiety. Support_.

Ashling receives a mental nudge and a warmth spreads through her.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I can't believe you're leaving." Riley says sadly. "We were going to spend the summer together goofing off for the final time."

Holly nods, completely serious for once. "Yeah, Ash! What… what changed?"

Ashling sighs, her eyes downcast. "I know… it's just, Ishizu invited me to come with them to Domino City. You guys know I've always wanted to go to Japan and this is probably the only chance I've got. I promise I'll e-mail you all when I have time and tell you all the cool things I'm doing. I'll even send you all junk."

"It won't be the same." Damian grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.

Ashling hops down from her tree branch and lands in front of her three friends. "Guys, I know this was our last summer together, but I bet you'd do the same if you had the chance!"

Riley, Holly, and Damian all look guiltily away.

"So, umm…. When are you leaving?" Holly finally asks.

"Tomorrow." Ashling replies, wincing when she receives cries of shock from her three best friends.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner!" Riley asks.

Ashling gives Riley a look. "Because you three would have tried to talk me out of it."

"Damn straight!" Damian agrees.

Holly steps forward and tightly hugs Ashling. "I'm going to miss you, Ash."

"Me too." Riley murmurs, walking forward and hugging Ashling too.

Damian sighs and mutters, "Oh screw it all." before stepping forward to join the three girls. "Group hug!"

Riley, Holly, and Ashling giggle.

' _I'm going to miss this…'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next day Riley, Holly, and Damian drag the rest of the group over to the Phoenix's house to say their final goodbyes before the Ishtar's and Ashling leave for Domino City.

On the flight over, Ashling and Marik get bored and start discussing pranks they've pulled in the past. This makes way for a very interesting conversation on how exactly they pulled off said prank.

" **WHOA!"**

-Thunk!-

Ashling, Marik, Malik, Ishizu, and virtually everyone around them stare at the bag that has fallen out of place.

" **Lass, where am I? Lass!"**

Ashling grabs her bag out of the isle and pulls it into her lap. "Allan?" She inquires, carefully unzipping it.

Allan's fuzzy crème and red head pops up out of the bag, answering Ashling's question.  **"Well this be interesting."**

Ashling gives the flame-point Himalayan cat a hard look. "Allan, what are you doing here?"

" **Well I heard you were leaving on a trip, lass and as your guardian I needed to follow you so I climbed into your bag when you weren't looking."** Allan says, quite pleased with himself.

Ashling's left eye twitches.

"Ashling?" Ishizu asks. "What are you doing?"

"Get in there!" Ashling growls before she's successfully able to get her bag zipped back up. "I'll feed you later, Allan, you overgrown fat cat!"

There's a muffled reply that sounds somewhat like,  **"I'm not fat! It's all fur!"**

Ashling looks sheepishly at Ishizu. "I, uh, discovered another gift."

Ishizu sighs. "I should have known this was coming. He's your First Guardian, isn't he?"

Ashling blinks. "Well, that's what he said."

Malik and Marik sweat drop, completely lost in the conversation.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Several hours later they finally arrive in Domino City and Allan makes a break for the grass which causes Ashling to chase him down. They eventually make it to the Ishtar house where Odeon is waiting for their return.

After a quick introduction they all head to bed. Malik, Ashling, Marik, and Allan squeezing into the same room. The bedroom has two futons set up- one for Malik and the other for Marik. Malik and Marik drag a bunch of blankets from their closet and create a makeshift bed for the only blonde girl and then they all go to sleep, Ashling and Allan both curled up into a ball on the fluffed up blankets.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next morning they all sleep in until around ten and then they get up and sluggishly move about. By noon they're finally awake and ready to pay a visit to Ryou and Tama's house.

"Tama's our cousin." Malik explains as they walk. "She's living with her boyfriend, her 'sister', and her boyfriend's 'brother'."

"Anything I should know about your family before we get there?" Ashling asks.

Marik smirks. "Strange things happen." He cheerfully tells her.

Ashling looks between the two boys and Ishizu questioningly, but none of them say anything else about it for the rest of the walk.

They finally make it to the Bakura household and find more cars than usual in the driveway.

"That's a nice truck." Ashling says, noticing the Chevrolet truck in the setting in the driveway.

"Looks like the others are here." Malik comments, ringing the doorbell.

"I'm coming!" A feminine voice yells. "Damn it, Bakura! Knock it off you bonehead!"

"Yume, sit down!" Another girl yells. "Yume! Come back in here and lay down you idiot!"

"I'm pregnant, not invalid!" Yume yells back, opening the door.

Malik, Marik, Ishizu, and Ashling look in surprise at a very pregnant Yume.

"Malik! Marik! Ishizu! You're back!" Yume exclaims in surprise. "Hikari! Hikari, they're back!" She yells down the hall.

('Hikari?' Ashling wonders.)

Several people gather at the door to the living room to see who it is.

Yume cheerfully lets the three blondes and raven haired girl in and leads them down the hall to the living room where everyone has backed away from the doorway. Tama notices Ashling right off the bat and introductions are made.

"I'm Tama Muto and this is my boyfriend Ryou Bakura." The tri-color-haired girl says. "And this is my y- 'sister' Yume Khalid and her husband Bakura. That's Joey Wheeler and his little sister Serenity. Oh, and that's Duke Devlin. Tristan and Téa both had to work today, but I'm sure you'll meet them both soon." She says. "Oh, and that's Yugi and Yami Muto. They're married."

"And that's Suma Muto, Yugi and Yami's daughter." Yume finishes happily from her spot on the couch.

Marik blinks. "Hey, Yugi's not a girl anymore!" He blurts out before Ashling can think about some of the odd things already said.

Ashling raises an eyebrow but remembers Marik's odd warning of, "Strange things happen" and decides to say awe over how cute the three-month-old Suma is.

Malik catches up on everything by talking to Tama, Ryou, and Joey and gets to hear all the trouble Suma has already caused for her two fathers. Marik joins Ashling and Ishizu in admiring the 'cute-ness' of the youngest Muto.

"She's beautiful, pharaoh. Yugi." Ishizu whispers as Suma grabs ahold of her finger.

Yugi giggles. "Suma's saying 'hello' to her Auntie Ishizu."

Yami sighs when Marik looks at him with a strange expression. "Don't mind him, he's been that way for a while."

"Children do the strangest things to people." Ishizu says softly. "Congratulations, the both of you."

"Thanks Ishizu." Yami replies.

The rest of the day is spent at Ryou's house. Téa and Tristan eventually come over and are introduced to Ashling. They all go to their own homes for dinner. Joey drives Yugi, Yami, and Suma to the Game Shop and then drives himself and Serenity home. Tristan offers to take Téa home and she accepts, and Duke offers the three Ishtar's and Ashling a ride, but they decline, choosing to walk home.

Later that night Tama quietly sneaks into Ryou's bed and snuggles up next to him. Ryou sleepily rolls over and looks down into his girlfriend's lilac eyes.

"You do realize that if Yume and Bakura find us that we'll never hear the end of it, right?" He quietly asks.

Tama giggles softly, something she normally despises doing as it makes her sound too 'girly'. "I know." She replies, closing her eyes and snuggling closer. She breaths deeply, comforted by his presence. "I love you." Tama whispers.

Ryou smiles softly and wraps his arms around her. "And I love you."


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter 16: August_

It's now August and the Ishtars and Ashling have been in Domino for a little over a month now. Ashling gets along fairly well with the rest of the group, although something about Duke grates on her nerves. She has yet to meet the Kaiba brothers, who are off in California discussing the Duelist Academy thing with Pegasus. (He  _is_ the creator of Duel Monsters, after all.)

Yume and Bakura's daughter has been born and they named her Yasu Hathor Khalid. She's roughly a week old now.

Today Tama and Ryou are going over wedding plans with the help of Yugi and Yami. Suma is sitting nearby playing with some soft clocks, Kuriboh plushy, and her Dark Magician Girl plushy.

"I want something simple yet nice. And Gardenia's are too expensive, Yugi." Tama says, looking over the choices of flowers.

"What about roses?" Yugi suggests. "I know they're pretty common, but that just makes them classics."

Tama looks thoughtfully at the pictures of the many varieties of roses. "What do you think, Ryou? Red and white roses as a possibility?"

"That sounds fine to me, Tama." Ryou replies, going over the edited and re-edited gust list. "I hope we haven't forgotten anyone…"

Tama smiles and kisses Ryou on the cheek. "We sent the invitations out weeks ago after going over the list for nearly the entire summer. We have everyone on there."

-Ding dong!-

Tama jumps up and walks down the hall to the door, easily beating Yume who's upstiars with Bakura and Yasu.

"Hello?" She asks, opening the door.

"SURPRISE!"

Tama squeals loudly when she sees her dad, Kiba, and Damian standing at the door with grins on their faces. She then promptly pulls them down into a group hug and then drags them inside and shuts the door behind them.

Damian laughs and pats her on the head. "Nice to see you too, munchkin."

Tama rolls her eyes and smacks Damian's hand away. "Knock it off. I'm taller than your pal Ashling."

Damian just continues grinning. "Yeah, that's why she's the shrimp now. She's shorter than both you and Yugi! She's only five foot three."

"You shouldn't make fun of short people." Tama comments. "You're shorter than the other guys, except for Yugi and Yami of course."

"I'm taller than Ryou." Damian defends, much to Kiba's amusement.

Tama smirks. "Just by a teeny, tiny bit. It's not noticeable."

"Now, now, you two." Tama and Kiba's dad, Kojiro, says. "It's not the time for fighting. It's the time for celebration!"

"That and we heard that Yume had a baby girl!" Kiba says excitably. "I want to see if she looks like a Muto!"

"Ow! Suma!" Yami cries from the living room. "Come now, let go of daddy's hair, Suma."

Tama looks sheepishly at her dad and brother when they give her questioning glances. "Yume and Bakura aren't the only parents here at the moment."

"Did Yugi and Yami adopt a child?" Kojiro inquires, looking down the hall in hopes of catching a glimpse of the yami and hikari pair.

Tama exchanges a glance with Damian, knowing he's already aware of the entire fiasco. "Well, you see, they didn't adopt." She says, looking away from her dad and brother.

"Didn't adopt?" Kiba repeats in confusion. "Then how do they have a kid?"

Tama bites her lip. "Things have been really weird around here for a while."

"Weirder than usual weird." Damian fills in, trying to help her.

Tama nods. "Yeah. And one of the weird things had to do withManaturningYugiintoagirlbecausesheoverheardYugiandYamitalkingaboutchildren."

Blink. Blink.

"What?" Kojiro and Kiba exclaim.

Tama takes a deep breath and goes into full detail over the whole thing.

"I think I need to sit down." Kiba mutters when his sister is finished, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Living room is on the right, kitchen is on the left." Tama tells her dad and brother, hearing her dad mutter something about needing a drink. "Yugi, Yami, Suma, and Ryou are in the living room."

Kojiro helps his son down the hall to the living room, feeling lightheaded himself. However, after about a minute he walks across the hall to the kitchen in search of the much needed drink.

"Well that went well." Damian comments with the grin still on his face.

Tama sighs. "It went better than I thought it would."

-Ding dong!-

"I wonder if I can talk Ryou into letting the yami's tamper with the stupid doorbell…" Tama grumbles under her breath before opening the door. "Malik! Ashling! Hello!"

"Good afternoon, Tama." Ashling greets with Allan in her arms.

"Ashy!" Damian exclaims happily, moving forward to hug his blonde friend.

"Code purple! Code purple!" Allan yells, jumping down from Ashling's arms before Damian pulls Bastet's chosen into a hug.

Tama and Malik both sweat drop.

"I can't believe you're here!" Ashling exclaims, reaching up to pat Damian's for once plain black hair. "Why are you here?"

"Mine and Ryou's wedding." Tama tells her. "Come on, Ashling. I want you to meet my dad and brother."

Ashling smiles and follows Tama to the living room shortly followed by Malik and Damian. Ashling is quickly introduced to the last of the Muto's and Kojiro, having returned from his trip to the kitchen, happily asks her to call him 'Uncle Kojiro'.

("He's asked almost everyone to call him that. Don't worry about it." Malik tells Ashling.)

Once everyone has calmed down somewhat and are sitting down, Damian stands up. "Okay, I got some stuff to say." He says. "First off, I didn't get into the college with Riley-dearest, which is a disappointment, but I do have a job with the wonderful and fabulous Muto Gaming Company as Kiba's assistant!"

"That's great, Damian!" Tama exclaims. "But wait… that means we're rivals now! Guess I finally have some decent competition, huh?"

"Rivals?" Ashling quietly questions.

"Tama works at Kaiba Corp as Mokuba Kaiba's assistant." Malik explains. "Kaiba Corp is a gaming company well known for its association with Duel Monsters. Muto Gaming Company is a lot smaller but is climbing its way up."

"Our game shop is a small division of it." Yugi says, taking Suma from Yami before the baby has a chance to grab the ex-spirit's hair again.

Ashling takes in all the information and then nods. "Okay, I think I understand better now. But Tama, what do you do as an assistant?"

Tama just smiles mysteriously. "Assistant stuff."

Ashling looks at little disappointed at the reply, so Ryou leans over toward her and whispers, "That's all we've ever gotten out of her too, so don't feel bad."

"I wasn't done with my good news." Damian says before anyone else can say anything. "I have a girlfriend now and you know her, Ashy."

Ashling gasps, her eyes going wide. " _Riley_?" When Damian nods she jumps up with a squeal and hugs him. "I'm so happy for both of you! Ri must be so happy! She's had a crush on you for ages!"

Damian coughs, pulling Ashling's arm away from his neck. "Yeah, she said something along those lines."

The black-haired boy is congratulated a few more times and teased mercilessly by Ashling and Tama.

After fifteen minutes Ryou takes pity on Damian and turns the topic to were the three guys are staying. This starts a debate between the brother and sister, as Tama wants them to stay at the house with her, Ryou, Yume, Yasu, and Bakura and the three boys have already rented a decent apartment.

The two siblings don't even pause when the phone rings and Ryou excuses himself to go get it.

Suma is, surprisingly, sleeping through the entire argument while her fathers as well as Kojiro and Malik, watch the two argue. Damian and Ashling get into a conversation on the goings on back home during this. Apparently Damian has left most of the running of the Shadow Café to Jiro and Max, trusting the two to do a good job. (Kaylie, Riley, and Holly only work there part-time now.)

"Tama." Ryou's voice cuts through the argument and Tama looks up. Noticing her fiancé looks paler than normal she looks at him in worry and asks, "Ryou, what's wrong?"

"We forgot someone."

Tama looks a little relieved at this statement. "Is that all? Who did we forget?"

"My dad."

Tama pales. "Shit."

Yugi gasps and covers Suma's ears. "Tama!" He hisses. "Not in front of Suma!"

Basically everyone else in the room sweat drops.

Soon after this, Malik and Ashling take their leave having promised Ishizu they'd be home before dinner. That and they promised her they wouldn't leave her alone with Marik for too long.

Less than half of the walk is spend in silence until Ashling breaks it by stopping in front of one of the park entrances. "Malik, lets go through here."

Allan takes one look at the park and backs up a step.  **"Lass, is that wise? What if there's some rabid creature in there that I can't protect you from?"**

Ashling rolls her eyes. "Allan, there are no rabid creatures in parks."

"What'd he say this time?" Malik asks, only hearing the gentle mewing noise.

Ashling looks up at Malik with a grin on her face. "It's nothing really. He's just afraid of the 'rabid creatures' dwelling in the park."

Malik raises an eyebrow. "Rabid creatures." He repeats. "Unless the squirrels are rabid, we'll be fine."

The three turn into the park (Allan grumbling about insensitive humans) and walk a little ways into it until they come to the duck pond where they stop.

Malik turns to Ashling, knowing the reason she had wanted to get off the road. "What do you want to talk about?"

Ashling sits down on the grass and gestures for Malik to do the same. Allan hops up into her lap and purrs when she begins petting him.

"You guys are hiding something, I know it." The blonde girl says, frustration laced in her voice.

Malik gives her a what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about? look to which Ashling replies with a look she learned from Riley that says I-know-you-know-what-I'm-talking-about-and-you're-going-to-tell-me- _now_.

Malik curses in his head. "What do you think we're hiding?"

"Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that you all are hiding something and it's something important." Ashling replies. "I've heard all sorts of slip-ups and there's a lot of things that just don't make any sense. First of all, I find it hard to believe that Yugi and Yami aren't related. Then there's the whole 'twin sibling' thing. I've had conversations abruptly stop when I walk into a room, but I have a distinct feeling they ain't talking 'bout me." She glares at Malik, her eyes a strange mix of crystal blue and golden-green. "I want an explanation  _now_. I don't particularly like being left in the dark you know."

Malik relaxes slightly.  _'Hopefully that's all she's noticed.'_

"And don't think that's all I've noticed Malik Ishtar! Those are just the obvious things." Ashling growls, having sensed Malik relaxing slightly.

Malik, again, curses in his mind, now completely convinced the gods are out to get him. Then he sighs, resigned to the fact he'll have to tell her now. "Lets go home. Ishizu and Marik can help me explain."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Several hours and one extremely confused Ashling later…

"So let me get this straight. Yume, Bakura, Marik, and Yami are all from Ancient Egypt and Yami was trapped in this Millennium Puzzle while Bakura was trapped in the Millennium Ring thingy."

Ishizu nods. So far so good.

"Yume was trapped in the dragon pendant thingy while Marik actually came back from the dead inside Malik's mind."

"Something like that." Marik says.

Ashling frowns, a little more confused by the next part. "Tama, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi are their 'other halves' and were thus able to set them free. Yume, Bakura, Marik, and Yami are the 'darker halves' which you all have shortened to 'Darks' and 'yami's'. (That last one's very confusing by the way.) And then Tama, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi are the 'lighter halves' and you guys have shortened that to 'Lights' and 'hikari's'." She pauses to think all that over. "Umm… the whole 'Shadow Realm' thing  _really_ confuses me."

"I'll sum it up for you." Malik says. "Basically, those chosen by the Millennium Items and the gods are able to draw upon the powers of the Shadow Realm. If it goes unused, the Shadow Realm becomes too strong and unbalanced and could kill us all."

"Gee, ain't that pleasant." Ashling grumblings, before something Malik said hits her. "Wait a second, I'm not going to have to learn too, am I?"

Malik looks to his sister for the answer to that question.

"I believe you may, Ashling. However, we will have to wait and see if you show signs before I can say for sure." Ishizu replies.

Ashling's head drops and she looks glumly at the floor. "Great… just, peachy."

Marik grins his usual insane little grin and pats Ashling on the back. "Don't worry, kitty-pretty. You'll be taught by the pro's!"

Ashling casts a worried look at Malik and mouths, 'Kitty-pretty?'. Malik rolls his eyes and mouths back, 'Don't ask.'


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter 17: Trials_

"Ow!" Ashling yelps when she pricks her finger for the umpteenth time with a wire. "Damn it! How the hell did I get stuck making these things again!"

Surrounded Ashling at the kitchen table are tons of flowers, wires cut to a certain length, special tape for said wires, fern-like plants, and everything else she needs to make the wristlets, corsages, and boutonnières for Tama and Ryou's wedding.

Malik looks up from whatever it is he's doing on the couch. "It's your own fault, Ashling. Afterall, you're the one who told Tama about making those in one of your classes for homecoming."

Ashling glares at Malik. "Not. Helping." She growls out. "What are you doing over there anyway?"

"My résumé." Malik replies. "Ishizu says they need some help at the museum so I'm going to apply for a job there."

Ashling mouths, 'oh' before returning to her work. Five seconds later however…

"Ow! Curse you to the seventh depth of Hell you damn wire!"

Malik looks up from his résumé again and watches in amusement as Ashling continues screaming at the cursed wire and then storms off to call Damian to get him there to help her.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Over at the Bakura house things are extremely tense as Ryou's father is returning hom. All five of the current inhabitants are in the living room. Yume's sitting on the couch with Yasu, wrapped up in a blanket, asleep in her lap. Bakura is sitting beside his wife and baby girl and is staring at the floor. His eyes don't betray what he's thinking about. Tama's sitting in the recliner, her lilac eyes watching a nervous Ryou pace back-and-forth.

"We have to tell him." Tama says.

Ryou nods distractedly. "Yes, I know."

"Ryou." This time Ryou meets her gaze. "we have to tell him  _everything_."

Ryou stops pacing and makes a choked noise. "Everything?"

-Ding dong!-

Everyone except Bakura jumps, startled by the loud noise and Yasu wakes up crying. Tama sweat drops when whoever's at the door begins continuously ringing the doorbell which has yet to be tampered with by the yami's. With a sigh, the tri-color haired girl gets up and walks out of the living room and down the hall to the door. She opens said door and is not surprised to see her brother standing there. Surprisingly though, Damian isn't with him.

When Tama questions him about it as they walk down the hall to the living room, Kiba smirks and tells her how Ashling called their black-haired friend and threatened him until he promised to go over and help her with 'the cursed wires'. Tama then questions herself on whether it was a good idea to let Ashling handle the flowers and then decides the blonde girl will be just fine.

Now there's six people in the living room only now it's less tense with Kiba there to lighten everything up.

Then the door opens and the house falls silent. Ryou stops his pacing and Tama gets back up from her hair and stands by him.

"It'll be okay, Ryou." She whispers. Her hank seeks out Ryou's hand and she squeezes it reassuringly.

Ryou gives Tama a half-hearted smile in return as his dad stops by the door frame.

"Ryou." His father says.

"Father." Ryou replies, finding a strength he had forgotten. "We need to talk abo-"

"Who are they?" His father interrupts, looking at the other four occupants of the room, his eyes landing briefly on Yasu.

Bakura lifts his head up, mahogany eyes fixed in a glare. "Bakura Khalid,  _sir_." He sneers mockingly.

Yume gives him a warning look before looking back at Mr. Bakura, keeping her gaze and voice neutral. "I'm Yume Khalid. Bakura's wife."

Kiba stands up with a smirk on his face.

"You…" Mr. Bakura almost growls, recognizing the 22-year-old. "You're  _her_ brother."

Kiba gives a mocking bow. "Kiba Muto, at your service."

Tama's gaze flickers between her future father-in-law and her brother, hoping Kiba won't start anything. Her prayers are answered when Ryou speaks up.

"Father." Ryou says, raising his voice. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Well, what is it?"

"You might want to sit down, Mr. Bakura." Tama cautions.

Mr. Bakura frowns. "I'll stand, thank you."

Yume rolls her eyes and mutters, "It's your funeral." under her breath.

Ryou and Tama launch straight into explaining who Bakura and Yume are and why they're there and then they finish with telling him they're engaged.

"I think you killed him." Yume comments, noting Mr. Bakura's rather blank expression. "Not that I care, really."

"Well at least he didn't go berserk like me and dad did." Kiba remarks, remembering when Tama told them about Yume.

Tama gives her brother a look. "Kiba, you're really not helping."

Kiba raises his hands up in defense and surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry! I just don't like him."

Yume glances at the still-in-shock Mr. Bakura. "I don't blame you."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"…and when he finally came to his senses he turned around and walked out of the house. He's back now but has barricaded himself in his room with a bottle of brandy." Tama tells Malik over the phone. "So how are you and Ashling doing? I hear she had to get Damian over there to help her . I'm not going to regret asking her to do this, am I?"

Malik laughs. "Don't worry. Those two did a good job considering all the screaming they did at the wires. They were so loud that Ashling's cat ran upstairs and buried himself under the covers of my bed. I nearly sat on him earlier!"

This time it's Tama who laughs. "Poor Allan." She says sympathetically. "That reminds me. I need you and Ashling to take care of Bast while we're on our honeymoon. Can you guys handle her? She's a real spitfire at times and I don't trust Bakura and Yume alone with her."

"We'll be happy to." Malik replies. "Ashling's a big cat person. I'm sure she'll like her."

"Allan! Get your furry butt down here and tell me where you hid my wristband!" Ashling can be heard screaming in the background.

"Malik, what's going on over there?" Tama asks.

Malik sighs. "It's nothing. Ashling has just lost her wristband again and is blaming her cat for it. It's sort of an everyday thing now."

"Okay…" Tama sounds unconvinced by her cousin's reply, but accepts it none-the-less. "So, what are you doing this week? Ryou's trying to figure out the best day to go get your formal wear for the wedding."

"Tomorrow's good." Malik replies. "Ashling's chaperoning Mokuba's class field trip to the zoo with Yugi and Joey. Is Seto going with them? Yugi mentioned it but I wasn't sure."

"He is." Tama confirms. "Mokuba guilt tripped him into it and from what I've heard, Yugi and Joey cornered poor Ashling."

"ALLAN!"

Malik sighs again and covers the mouthpiece of the phone. Muffled yelling can be heard before Malik takes his hand off. "Tama, I've got to go. Ashling's gone and caught something on fire in the kitchen while chasing Allan. Talk to you later." He hangs up before Tama has a chance to reply.

Turns out the "Kitchen Fire Incident", as Marik dubbed it, was caused by Ashling releasing a rather violent spark of Shadow Magic due to her temper. When Malik finally figures this out, he pulls Ashling outside for her first lesson.

When the yami's started teaching their hikari's they discovered that each hikari could meditate better in a certain 'zone'. Ryou does better sitting under a tree in the shade; Malik's zone is sitting or laying out in the bright, warm sun; Tama does better in a cool forested area and it's best if she can sit in a cool body of water; and Yugi's zone is anywhere he feels safe as long as he has some sort of puzzle he can work on with his eyes closed. (Like a Rubix cube for example.)

So since meditation is the main part of learning control for Shadow Magic, Malik and Marik have to try and figure out what Ashling's zone is.

Marik suggests fire which Malik immediately nixes, recalling how Marik nearly nlew up his room in their old underground home in Egypt when fire was placed near him.

Then Marik comes up with a smart idea for once and suggests they ask Ashling where she's most comfortable or relaxed.

After getting over his initial shock of Marik being smart, Malik agrees and the two talk to Ashling about it. The blonde girl's zone turns out to be a little unusual, but fitting for her. Hers is a comfortable area with a warm fuzzy blanket wrapped around her and music- preferably rock or country- playing.

Malik guides her through the meditation while Marik lays down on his bed, after checking for Allan, and proceeds to steadily throw a bouncy ball against the wall.

"How much longer?" Ashling mumbles, her eyes still closed.

Malik sighs. "Another twenty. No talking."

Ashling heavily sighs and lays down and snuggles into the blankets around her, letting the music take her drifting away. While she's meditating for the next twenty minutes, Malik picks up a book he recently found and reads some of it. When the twenty minutes have passed, he marks his page and sets the book aside and says, "Ashling, the time's up." He looks at her in puzzlement when she doesn't even move. "Ashling?" Malik questions.

"She's asleep." Marik tells his hikari, still steadily throwing the bouncy ball at the wall. "She fell asleep about ten minutes ago." He looks up and over at his hikari as a grin spreads across his face. "Hikari-pretty, can I wake her up?"

Malik's eyes flicker from Marik to the bouncy ball to Ashling and then back again. "Alright, go ahead. Don't blame me for the consequences."

Still grinning, Marik catches the ball and throws it across the room in Ashling's direction. Malik just sighs for the fourth time that day and turns away, waiting for the explosion that's sure to happen. Much to his surprise, the only thing he hears is a 'thunk' as the ball hit's the wall above Ashling's bed. The ball promptly goes back to Marik's hand, most likely controlled by a small amount of Shadow Magic.

This process of throwing the ball at the wall is repeated a few times until a disappointed Marik gets tired of it. Marik catches the ball one final time and then sticks it into his pocket.

"You haven't given up, have you?" Malik questions.

"Marik just tosses his hikari a smirk. "Not by a long shot." Now he rolls off the bed and walks across the room and then sits down beside Ashling. Then he stares. It's an unwavering stare that can crack even the hardest people. Including, but not limited to, THE Seto Kaiba.

Ashling twitches in her sleep, somehow sensing Marik's stare and closeness. Then she rolls over, muttering something about "catnip cheese socks". At least, that's what it sounds like.

/I thought you were going to wake her up./

/./I am. This stuff takes time and patience. I have to annoy her first and then when I've succeeded I can wake her up with a BOOM/./

/Then do so./

/./Patience././

Marik then takes a feather out of his pocket and proceeds to use it to tickle Ashling on the nose and on one of her ears. Ashling sleepily lifts a hand in an attempt to brush it away and Marik pauses for a moment before resuming his assault. This time Ashling sneezes and mumbles, "Go 'way."

Marik happily grins and puts the feather back into his pocket. "Kitty-pretty…" He whispers. "Wakey, wakey."

Malik raises an eyebrow at his yami's actions and crosses his arms over his chest. Waiting for the explosion he knows will soon come.

Ashling twitches in her sleep and then falls still when Marik is quiet. The blonde yami then grins and takes a deep breath, lowering his face until he's right by Ashling's ear. "BOO!"

Ashling yelps loudly and jumps away, her eyes briefly changing to crystal blue. She lands a few feet away and growls, glaring at Marik. "Mariku Ishtar…!"

Marik just continues grinning and gives a small quick wave before taking off out of the room. Ashling leaps to her feet and chases after him, waving a fist in the air and yellow at the yami. Malik sighs, a little annoyed by the havoc his yami has once again caused, and follows the two to make sure they don't blow up anything, as that's usual the outcome of Marik's little plots.

Malik eventually gets Ashling to calm down and gives Marik the job of chopping fruits and vegetables for dinner. Marik happily takes the job and winds up making a big mess.

They don't have too many problems for the rest of the day, although Ashling doesn't forgive Marik until dinner.

Ashling gets up early the next morning in order to prepare for the field trip with Mokuba's class. She also begins to think of some way to get back at Marik for his 'lets be stupid and wake Ashling up' joke. She finds herself unable to think of anything good and so she resolved to ask Yugi, Joey, and Mokuba for help.

Malik wakes up about the time Ashling is leaving and he stops her on her way out. "You're leaving early." The blonde boy comments. "Don't you want breakfast?"

Ashling jerks her black bag further up on her shoulder. "I'll be fine. Joey's picking me and Yugi up and then we're going to go grab some burgers for breakfast and then go to Mokuba's school."

"Burgers for breakfast… that  _had_ to be Yugi's idea." Malik mutters, shaking his head.

Ashling smiles, one hand on the door. "Actually, it was my idea. Yugi just agreed with me and therefore we overruled Joey's complaint." She asks a joking evil laugh at the end, which makes Malik rolls his eyes in amusement.

"Have fun with whatever you're plotting and make sure it's good enough to surprise my yami." Malik tells her.

Ashling's smile grows brighter. "That I shall!" Then she's out the door without another word.

-Honk! Honk!-

"I'm coming, Joey!"

Malik sighs and continues on to the kitchen, knowing Marik will be up soon and will want waffles. As Malik doesn't trust his yami with the toaster, especially not after what happened last time, he now toasts his yami's waffles.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling glares at Seto, who's sitting next to her working on something on his laptop. Yugi and Joey are in the seat across from them and two teachers are behind those two. Mokuba is sitting behind Ashling and Seto and is happily playing with a hand-held video game.

Sensing Ashling's glare, Seto takes his eyes off his laptop and fixes an icy glare on her. "What?"

"Will you please put that thing up?" Ashling hisses. "It's really bothering me that you're doing  _work_ when you should be preparing to have  _fun_."

Seto ignores her and turns his attention back to typing. "Some of us have a company to run, Phoenix."

Ashling growls deeply in her throat and looks to Yugi for help. "Yugi, please switch seats with me! Rick boy here is driving me insane!"

Yugi just sighs. "Ashling, we're suppose to set a good example for the ninth graders. I don't think switching seats while the bus is moving is a good example. Besides Kaiba isn't doing anything."

"Yes he is…" Ashling grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest. "Would you prefer it if I strangle him instead of switching seats?"

Yugi gives Ashling a look. "Ashling, there's just a little while left. You can survive twenty more minutes. I'll sit with him on the way back if it'll make you feel better."

Ashling nods albeit reluctantly. "Fine. Thanks Yugi."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The rest of the trip passes without any problems. The two ninth grade classes are split into six groups and divided amongst the two teachers and four older teens. In fact, it's not until the four older teens and their groups meet up to head back to the bus that something happens.

"Did you guys hear 'bout da tiger dat almost escaped?" Joey asks. "Me 'n my group were two cages away when it happened."

Ashling and Yugi look at Joey in surprise while Seto just listens with feigned disinterest.

"A tiger?" Ashling questions. "No, I didn't hear anything about-"

" _It's escaped!"_ Someone yells.  _"The tiger escaped!"_

Joey and Yugi's hands move instinctively toward their decks, as much of the trouble they've been in centers on Duel Monsters. Ashling and Seto seemingly toss aside their differences and work together on getting the kids out of the way to the best of their ability.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Ashling catches a flash of orange going toward a crowd. Something inside her wind snaps at this time and her eyes change to pure crystal blue and her pupils become cat-like. Without even thinking she runs into the tiger's path with her arms spread wide. "STOP!" She roars.

To everyone's amazement, the tiger does what the 19-year-old says and stares at her in what appears to be shock.

"You don't want to hurt anyone." Ashling tells it. "That will make things a lot worse for you."

The tiger says nothing to Ashling for a moment, sending the blonde girl into a quick moment of panic.

" **What are you?"** The tiger asks in a deep voice.

Ashling breaths a sigh of relief. "I'm human."

The tiger eyes the mark on the back of Ashling's hand and does something that could translate into a snort.  **"Lady Bastet's chosen. You're the _'neko tenshi'_."**

"Ashling!" Yugi yells as several zookeepers surround the tiger.

Ashling thinks quickly and decides to ask, "What's your name?"

" **I go by Silverfang."** The tiger replies before being led away.

Yugi runs over to Ashling and grabs her arm, a strange expression on his face. "Ashling, lets go." He says, tugging her toward the others who have begun heading back to the bus. "What was that about, anyway?"

Ashling glances up at Yugi and sighs. "I'll explain later. After we get back."

Yugi frowns. "As long as you explain what's going on and why you were talking to a tiger."

"I will."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling sighs heavily as she collapses onto Malik's bed. "Explaining everything to those four was harder than I thought." She murmurs to herself, closing her eyes, which are still crystal blue and cat-like. "Hopefully I won't have to go through that again. I know I most likely will but…" She rolls over and breaths in Malik's scent which permeates the pillow and blankets. "I really don't want to. It takes far too long to explain."

"Ashling?" Ishizu questions, opening the door. "It's time for dinner. Are you coming?"

Ashling lifts her head and nods. "Yeah, I'm coming." She frowns when she notices something different about Ishizu and is unable to pin-point what it is. Then it hits her. "Ishizu, where's your Millennium Necklace?"

"I believe it has chosen a new owner. I awoke this morning to find it gone." Ishizu replies. "Perhaps it is for the best."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Serenity sets a glass of water on her bedside table like she does each night. It's only after she sets it down that she notices a golden object sitting there on the table. She picks it up and runs a finger over the golden eye in confusion.  _'Isn't this Ishizu's? What is it doing here?'_ Serenity frowns and carries it out to the living room where Joey is at with his back facing her. "Joey? I found this in my room. Doesn't it belong to Ishizu?"

Joey hides something in his hand and turns around to face his sister. His honey brown eyes widen when he sees the Millennium Necklace clasped in her hands. Joey glances down at the Millennium Key in his hand and frowns.  _'What is going on, here?'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tama breaths out shakily and smoothes out the skirt of her dress for the 20th time in the past five minutes. Yume walks up beside her hikari and rests a tan hand on her shoulder. "Relax." She says gently. "Everything will be fine."

Besides Tama and Yume, Serenity, Ishizu, and Rebecca are also in the room. With the exception of Tama, each of the girls are wearing dresses of light blue.

Ashling bustles into the room at this time, clad in an ankle length dress of forest green. In her arms are several boxes of flowers as well as Tama's bouquet. "Falling apart already?" She teases lightly. "Well, at least you're not quite as bad as Ryou is. When I left the boys were still trying to convince him you're not going to run away."

"Just wait until yours and Malik's wedding." Yume defends her hikari. "You'll be just as afraid and nervous as Tama is."

Ashling blushes and says nothing else, instead busying herself with helping Yume, Ishizu, and Serenity with their wristlets.

"Knock, knock!" Mokuba cheerfully calls through the door. "Am I allowed to come in?"

"Come on in, Mokuba." Ishizu says, knowing there's not much Tama can say through her nervousness.

Mokuba steps into the room with a basket of white flower petals. He's dressed in a dark blue tuxedo that's about the same color as his eyes. "Delivery for the flower girl!"

Rebecca walks forward with a smile and takes the basket from Mokuba. "Thank you, Mokuba."

Mokuba inclines his head. "It's no problem." Then he looks over at Tama, who's becoming more fidgety by the minute. "You look beautiful, Tama. Ryou's really lucky to have someone like you."

Tama weakly smiles. "Thanks."

Mokuba waves it off. "It's no problem. Now, your dad is waiting for you and everyone else is ready to go."

Tama turns to Yume. "Is it time already?"

Yume nods. "It is."


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter 18: Wedding_

An entire year and a month has passed since Ryou and Tama's wedding and many things have changed. The two English-accented young adults now own the house they have been living in instead of it belonging to Ryou's dad. Yume, Bakura, and Yasu still live with them.

Suma and Yasu are both one-year-old and Ryou and Tama's daughter, Amane Gin Bakura, is only 3 months. Yume is pregnant with her and Bakura's second child and is due in two months in October.

Sometime during the year Joey and Mai finally married, despite Mai's argument about the age difference. Poor Mai is pregnant with triplets and is due next month, although everyone is sure they'll be early.

Malik now has a job at the museum as a guide for the Egyptian section and he also helps 'escort' people out. Ashling is going to a small Veterinarian school in the area and works part time at an animal clinic and has another part-time job at the Animal Shelter with Joey. Yume, Bakura, Marik, and Yami have discovered the joys of the computer and occasionally help Seto out with testing Duel Monster duel disks and other things. Yugi now owns the game shop and due to an agreement with Kiba and Kojiro, the name has been changed to 'Muto Game Shop'. The outside has been repainted by the yami's, hikari's, Joey, Serenity, Mokuba, and Ashling, although it's believed they got more paint on themselves than the building because of the paint war Ashling and Malik started. During the time they were painting, Sugoroku is inside watching over his 'grandchildren'.

Mokuba has begun his first year of high school while Serenity, who has been on an accelerated program, is on her last year of high school despite only being seventeen.

Besides the Key and the Necklace choosing their new owners, the Scales and Eye have returned. Marik has the scales while Bakura has the Eye, although he refuses point-blank to use it in replace of one of his own eyes. The object has seemingly noticed this and allows Bakura to use it's powers sparingly.

Joey is having no problems with the Key, but Serenity is still having trouble with the almost random visions she receives from the Necklace. She has been spending time with Ishizu throughout the year to help control when she receives a vision.

The last major thing that has happened it Malik and Ashling's engagement. They easily get everything planned out but run into one major problem- where to have it. All of Ashling's family and her school friends like in America while Malik's family and the others live in Domino. It's actually Mokuba who comes up with a solution by blackmailing Seto into flying their group over to America. The CEO gives in after his younger brother gets Tama and Serenity in on his plot.

This is why everyone except Tama, Ryou, Bakura, and Yume are loaded in Seto's infamous Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet. The two pairs of hikari and yami have chosen to stay behind to watch the kids and because Tama and Ryou feel Amane is too young to travel.

Ashling is incredibly nervous about how her family and friends reactions will go when meeting the Domino group. She's especially worried about her grandmother's reaction. To help ease her anxiety, she's trying to focus all her attention on the lilac and gold scarf she's knitting. When Ashling isn't knitting she is absent-mindedly stroking Allan's soft furry head.

"Hey rich boy," Joey suddenly calls out. "Are we dere yet?"

Seto grits his teeth and decides to ignore the blonde duelist.

"Joey, please don't." Serenity says softly. "He's the one driving this jet. Do you really want to annoy him?"

Joey falls silent. "Yeah, you're right."

Mai looks thoughtfully at the fashion oriented magazine she's looking at. "You know what? I'm hungry. I could really go for some pizza and peanut butter right now."

Everyone within hearing distance sweat drops and then prays that they will soon be arriving.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling happily steps out of the small airport and looks around at all the cars. The others soon follow with their luggage.

"Hey Tama, how are we getting to your house anyway?" Joey asks. "There's a bunch of us."

Ashling just smiles. "I did call in some help before we left Domino City. They should be here any-"

-Honk! Honk!-

"-time."

Malik almost groans in exasperation when Damian's eye-catching silver-flamed purple truck comes into view with several cars behind him.

Damian comes to a stop in front of them and rolls down the window. "Hey ya'll! Toss yer stuff into the back and then pick a car! Holly's driving the blue van and can take five or six, Riley's got the yellow car and can take three, and my truck can fit three." The now entirely purple haired boy says happily.

The group from Domino City quickly put their things into the back of Damian's truck and after a little arguing they arrange themselves into the cars and are then off to the Phoenix home.

Yugi, Yami, Malik, Marik, Ishizu, and Ashling are in the blue van with Holly, although it may not have been the best idea in the world to put Holly and Marik in the same car. Duke (who Ashling gets along with pretty well), Seto, and Mokuba get into Damian's truck which leaves Serenity, Joey, and Mai to ride in Riley's yellow car that replaced her VW Bug after 'the incident' and has been affectionately nicknamed the 'banana car' by Damian.

It's a little over a half hour drive from the small airport to Ashling's home, especially since they made a pit stop for fried chicken for Ashling, Mai, Joey, Damian, and Mokuba. When they finally get there they all sigh with relief and get out of whatever car they had been in.

Mrs. Phoenix and Cheyenne come out of the house and Ashling quickly introduces her mom and sister to the people they haven't met yet. The group of fifteen then splits into smaller groups led by either Ashling, Damian, or Mrs. Phoenix and are given a tour of the house.

Everyone's stuff is taken to Ashling's large room, which is where everyone will be staying, much to several people's displeasure.

Riley and Damian leave once everyone is settled in, Riley having homework to complete and Damian still needing to go over some stuff for Kiba. Holly stays, wanting to spend time with Marik.

Joey, Mai, Ishizu, and Mrs. Phoenix are in the kitchen. Joey is making Mai a snack while the three women chat. Seto is sitting outside with Serenity and Mokuba. The black-haired boy is playing with the Phoenix's four dogs- Goldie the golden retriever, Dixie the beagle, Raven the black lab, and Daisy a large fluffy brown and white Husky puppy. Ashling and Malik are giving Duke, Yugi, and Yami a tour of the property. Yami appears to be fascinated by the river and the small sandy-colored fish that live in it.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

So far everything has gone just fine. Despite the few problems with overcrowding, there have been no major arguments or problems. Even Marik has been behaving himself and hasn't caused any problems. That may just be because of all the time he's been spending with Holly though.

The big day soon arrives and Yume was right when she said Ashling would be just as nervous as Tama was for her wedding. If possible, the 19-year-old is even more nervous than her "cousin-in-law".

Riley, Holly, and Serenity as well as Riley's 8-year-old cousin Meghan are trying their best to clam her down and aren't succeeding very well. Allan is also in the room, but he's really not helping matters. But when he begins to grow annoyed with the blonde girl he finally snaps, "Lass, if he hasn't run away from you by now then he most likely isn't going to run away! Where's the confidence I know you have?"

Ashling pauses in the middle of her pacing, her simple off-white short-sleeved dress barely brushing the ground. A look of disbelief momentary crosses her face and she turns to look at the flame-point Himalayan cat. A small smile then crosses her face. "Thank you, Allan."

Riley and Holly exchange confused glances and Serenity just smiles, thankful that Ashling's First Guardian has managed to say something to calm her down.

Just as Mokuba had retrieved Tama for her wedding, he now does the same for Ashling. He also gives Meghan the basket of flower petals.

Riley smiles at Ashling and smoothes out her light golden colored dress. "You ready, Ash?"

Ashling scratches Allan behind the ears and then turns toward her friends. "Yeah, I'm ready."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling and Malik have a short honeymoon at Virginia Beach, as both of them have duties to attend to back at Domino City. The rest of the group from Domino leaves the day after the wedding, although Marik chooses to wait for his hikari and new "sister-in-law". Upon discovering this, Holly invites him to stay at her house so that the three Phoenix family members can have some peace.

Ashling, Malik, Marik, Allan, and, to everyone's surprise, Holly, head to Domino City on Seto's jet two weeks later. Holly happily bounces in her seat, alternating between looking out the window and happily chatting with the others on the jet, especially Marik.

Upon arriving in Domino, Marik takes Holly to their home, which is beginning to grow quite crowded, Malik takes off to the museum for work, and Ashling gets a ride from Mokuba in the limo to the zoo to check up on her Second Guardian.

And so the days pass…


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Twins

Days pass. Those days turn into weeks and those weeks into months. Nothing bad has happened and no new powers have popped up anywhere. The Ring, Rod, and Puzzle have returned to their original owners. So Ryou once again has the Ring, Malik has the Rod, and Yugi and Yami have the Puzzle.

Suma is still one-year-old but will soon be turning two and causing her parents plenty of trouble. The two guy's have learned to lock up all valuable things in the house at all times. Yasu is one-year-old. Amane is seven months old. Joey and Mai's kids- Seth, Jono, and Maiko, are six months. Yume and Bakura's second child, Ammon Khalid, is 4 months old.

Unsurprisingly, Holly and Mariku married sometime during those many months and Holly is pregnant.

Whether or not Malik and Ashling will have children is still unknown to everyone except for the two of them and Ashling's Guardians.

Today Ashling is meeting Mai for an overdue talk and then she has to go see her Second and Third Guardian's.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling walks into the small coffee shop and looks around for Mai's bright wavy blonde hair, which she figures will be the first thing she'll see.

"Ashling!" Mai calls, waving an arm. "Hun, over here!"

Ashling hurries over to Mai, her creamy colored, off-white lightweight cloak floating out behind her, threatening to trip her up. It's clasped on by a single golden button with the eye of Ra in the center. Underneath it she's wearing a knee-length skirt and a off-the shoulder shirt in the same color as the cloak. Her hair is down for once and has more of a reddish tint than usual.

Mai's wearing a v-neck light blue shirt and a darker blue jacket. She's wearing a knee-length skirt that's the same color as the jacket. Her hair is up in a ponytail.

"What are you wearing, Ashling?" Mai asks once the younger woman sits down.

Ashling sighs and picks up the small menu. "I'm making my rounds today. Silverfang and Brightheart want to talk to me about something." She glances up at the waitress when she stops by their table. "One mocha and a piece of chocolate pie." She says.

"Latte and apple pie." Mai says without even touching her menu. "I thought you just talked to them two days ago and weren't due for a week."

Ashling shrugs and replies, "Something came up. And I was already going to go over there to talk to my Third Guardian, so it's really no big deal."

"Which one's your Third Guardian again?" Mai asks, unable to recall the cat.

"Leona, the black leopard." Ashling replies. "Now, lets drag this conversation away from my darling Guardians and get to whatever it is you wanted to talk to me about."

Mai nods and sits back in her seat as the waitress brings their food and drinks. She thanks the girl and waits until she walks away before looking coolly at Ashling. "I don't have anything specific I wanted to talk to you about, I just wanted to have a little girl time. I do live with three boys now."

Ashling relaxes a little and sips her drink, obviously amused by Mai's statement. "I feel for you. I have a hard enough time with Malik. I don't know how you do it, Mai."

"It takes a lot of time, effort, and talent." Mai replies. "So, speaking of children…"

Ashling sighs and sinks down in her seat. "I should have known the topic would turn to this. It does every time I talk to one of the girls around here."

"You and Malik  _are_ being rather secretive about the whole thing." Mai says, cutting a piece of her slice of pie with her fork.

Ashling absently pokes the whipped cream on her pie with her own fork. "We… we're trying…"

Mai frowns and sets her fork down. "Do the gods hate you two or something? Every time I turn around you two seem to have found another problem to overcome."

Ashling laughs tonelessly. "Yeah."

The two sit in silence for a moment. Mai eats a little of her pie while Ashling continues to poke her piece of pie.

"I'm not all that hungry right now." Ashling says, putting a few dollars down onto the table. "I'll catch you later, Mai."

Mai watches as Ashling gets up and walks out of the small coffee shop and then she sighs audibly. 'Well… I know not to try that again.'

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling's feet carry her to a small, deserted kids park and she sits down on one of the swings, staring dismally at the ground. She sighs quietly after a few minutes.  _'Why did I react like that? I mean, maybe we're just not ready for a kid and this is the Gods way of telling us that.'_  She kicks the sand once, sending the swing swinging a little.  _'I'm not… jealous, am I?'_ She frowns at this thought.  _'I mean, so what if the others have kids already. I've got Malik and there are some days when he acts like a kid himself. So do I for that matter. Although… thinking about it… we're really still kids aren't we? I mean, sure we're twenty and some of the stuff we've been through… but in heart we're still kids. Kids that were forced to grow up too quickly. Me after my brother-…'_ Ashling growls softly and kicks the ground again, pushing the swing into motion. This time she keeps it going, letting her mind fly away as she gets going up really high.

Her cat-like crystal blue eyes glinting with joy, Ashling lets go of the chains and lets her self fly off the swing-set. She lands cat-like in the sand, reddish-blonde hair flying around her.

Now that she's calmed herself down, Ashling stands back up and pushes her hair behind her slightly pointed ears. With a small smile on her face, Ashling makes her way to the zoo to chat with Silverfang and her mate, Brightheart. Once she's solved the 'problem' the two tigers gave her, which was to name their cub (who Ashling gave the name Whitepaw), she goes on to visit her Third Guardian, Leona.

The black leopard greets her with several riddles. One easy, one hard, and one near impossible.

Leona growls deeply and sits down in front of Ashling, looking at the girl from inside the cage.  ** _"I come in different shapes and sizes. Part of me are curves and others are straight. You can put me anywhere you like, but there is only one place for me. What am I?"_**

Ashling thinks for a moment, mulling over the question. Then it hits her. "A puzzle. It's a jigsaw puzzle."

Leona purrs.  **"Very good. How about this one."** She gets up from her spot and begins pacing as she recites the next riddle.  ** _"Duels of good and evil, a fighter of good am I. Revealed beside watched words, King of the black night sky. What am I?"_**

Ashling frowns and thinks over the words, asking Leona to repeat it once.  _'Duels of good and evil… a fighter of good… so that'd be light, right? No… no, not necessarily. I use the shadows, as do the hikari's and yami's. Beside watched words? King of the black night- night. Night. It's dark out at night. So… is it dark?'_ She looks up at Leona, who's watching her with curious eyes. "It's dark, isn't it."

Once again, Leona purrs.  **"Correct, neko tenshi. Now for the last one. _At night they come without being fetched. And by day they are lost without being stolen. My hint for you on this one is: they belong to the night."_**

This one Ashling takes longer on and has to ask Leona to repeat it twice.  _'Come without being fetched… so they're there whether you want them to be or not. Lost in day… without being stolen… so, it must be that you can't see them during the day. Belong to the night… the night… the sky maybe? That's the only thing that changed from night to day. So what is it… the moon or…'_ Her eyes widen.  _'Of course!'_ "The stars!"

" **You are very wise."** Leona says.  **"I shall have to think of harder riddles for your next visit."**

Ashling smiles. "I have a riddle for you, Leona."

Leona blinks, blue eyes surprised.  **"You do? Well, this is a treat indeed. What do you have for me?"**

"What is the worst vegetable to have on a ship?"

Leona paces around thinking about the question.  **"It could be numerous things, but something tells me it's an actual name of a vegetable. But what could it possibly be…?"** She stops suddenly and purrs.  **"Ahh, you've found a good one, neko tenshi, but I have discovered the answer. It's a leek."**

Ashling laughs. "Yeah, that's right."

Leona chuckles and walks back over to her spot in front of Ashling.  **"Very clever. I shall remember that one."**

Ashling stays and chats with the wise leopard for a while, telling her of her and Malik's dilemma.

" **Whatever will be, will be. Whatever won't, won't."** Leona says.  **"There is a reason for everything that happens. You just have to find that reason. What you wish will come to pass, for you have been through much."**  She studies Ashling for a moment.  **"Young one, I believe that's not the only thing on your mind. Something else is bothering you. It's something that has been bothering you for a while now and yet you say nothing. What is it?"**

Ashling lays down in the grass on her side, playing with a blade of grass. "You know about me being married and all and how the wedding went without any problems, right."

" **Of course."**

"It's just… at the end when I looked out at all my friends for a moment, I could have sworn I saw someone." Ashling says, her throat clenching.

Leona looks at the blonde girl in confusion.  **"Who was it, neko tenshi?"**

"I think…" Ashling swallows and blinks back tears. "I could have sworn I saw my brother. I saw him standing there with a smile on his face watching me."

" **The world works in strange ways. However, I have an explanation. He wanted to show you that he's happy for you. If I recall correctly, this isn't the first time he's appeared to you."** Leona says.

Ashling nods, a small smile appearing on her face when she recalls the chat she had with him about two years ago on Halloween. "Yeah. He told me he snuck out to talk to me. So, you think he snuck out again to be there for the wedding?" She questions. "That would make sense… there are times when I sense him nearby. I guess he's my guardian angel."

Leona chuckles.  **"Perhaps he is. You never really know."**

"Thanks for listening to me, Leona. You're a real pal."

"' **Tis no problem t'all, milady."** Leona replies, giving a cat-style bow.  **"Come back anytime you like. Otherwise, I'll see you in a week."**

Ashling gets to her feet and bows. "See you later, Leona."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I'm never asking those three for advice again." Malik tells his wife later that night. "I swear I will  _never_ ask any of them again."

Ashling giggles and plops down onto the bed beside him. "Really. What kind of advice did they give?"

Malik turns red and he looks away. "Something that will never be repeated by me."

Ashling's giggling turns into chuckling as she rolls her eyes. "Well if it's something that you won't repeat then I suppose I really don't want to know." She runs a finger down Malik's arm. "So, anything else happen today?"

Malik shakes his head 'no'. "What about you? What'd Silverfang and Brightheart want?"

Ashling smiles and proceeds to tell Malik about the two's cub and how they wanted her to name it. Then she tells him about her chat with Leona and tells him the riddles to see if he can figure them out. When she's done the two sit in comfortable silence.

"So, we have the room tonight. Marik and I dueled for it and I won." Malik says, breaking the silence.

Ever since Holly and Marik married, the Light and Dark have played some sort of game to determine who gets the room for the first night of the week. Usually it's Marik who wins.

Ashling squeals when Malik pins her down on the bed and begins to kiss her sensitive neck.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Holly looks up from the book she's reading and rolls her eyes. Marik barely glances away from the TV. Ishizu and Odeon both put their earplugs in and Ishizu hands a pair to Holly and then Marik.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It's not until mid-summer that Malik and Ashling make their first trip to the doctor to check up on the baby. It's then that they discover they're not going to have just one baby.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Twins?" Ashling repeats faintly, her eyes wide. She tightly grips Malik's arm and he winces slightly. "A-are you sure?"

The doctor nods, a small smile on her face. "That's right. Would you like to know the gender?"

"Easy, Ashling." Malik whispers in her ear.

Ashling relaxes her tight grip a little and looks up at Malik, her crystal blue eyes showing her worry. "Do you want to know?"

"Only if you want to." Malik replies.

Ashling thinks for a moment and then looks at the doctor and nods. "Yes. I- I want to know."

Doctor Gray smiles. "Very well. You two are going to have twin boys."

Ashling closes her eyes.  _'Twins… twin boys… I don't believe this. I just hope… I just hope they don't go through what I did.'_

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I'm fat." Ashling says, gently poking her stomach.

Malik glances away from the vegetable's he's cutting, pausing for a moment so he doesn't hurt himself. "Ashling, you're not fat." He says patiently.

"Yes I am!" Ashling insists. "Look at me! I'm huge!"

Malik sighs and sets down the knife. "Ashling, you're six months pregnant with twins. You're big but you're not fat."

"But-"

"No 'buts'." Malik cuts her off, returning to making dinner. "I thought you were looking up baby names."

"I found one I like." She replies. "What do you think of 'Zahur'."

"Zahur Ishtar…" Malik tests out the name. "Doesn't that mean 'a flower'."

Ashling nods happily. "Yeah! Don't you like it?"

Malik panics momentarily. "Um… yeah! Yes, of course!"

Ashling's bottom lip trembles. "Y-you don't like it do you?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean-!" Malik runs over to Ashling and hugs her before she can start crying. "I love it. It's perfect."

Ashling sniffs momentarily. "Really?"

Malik nods. "Yeah. Really."

Ashling smiles. "Okay. How about Brian as a middle name?"

Malik inwardly breaths a sigh of relief. "Sounds good. Do I get to name our other son?"

Ashling nods. "Sure!"

"Malik! I smell something burning!" Ishizu calls as she passes by the kitchen.

Malik panics once more and runs over to the stove where he has somehow managed to burn the water. Ashling giggles at her husbands actions and puts away the baby book to watch him instead.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Malik bursts into the waiting room and heads straight for Ishizu. "Where is she? Is she alright? What's going on?"

"Calm down, Malik." Ishizu says in a calming tone. "Ashling's just gone into labor. It's nothing to worry about."

"But it's too early! She's not due for another month!"

Joey looks up from the book he's reading. "Relax, Malik. Everything will be just fine. Mai was a month early too, remember."

"And you were a worried wreck as well." Tama says, her eyes laughing. "Ryou and Duke had to hold you back to keep you from pacing and then they had to force you to sit down, remember?"

Joey has the decency to turn slightly red and then he goes straight back to reading his book.

Tama smiles up at her cousin. "Come sit down, Malik. There's no need to worry yourself sick. It'll do none of our nerves any good if you were to collapse from over exhaustion and stress."

Malik numbly nods and sits down in between Joey and Tama. "Yeah… you're right."

Within the hour the rest of the group that can come arrives. Tama, Ryou, Bakura, Yume, Ishizu, Joey, and Serenity were there when Malik had arrived. Now Seto, Mokuba, Duke, Yugi, and Yami have joined them.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Mr. Ishtar?" One of the nurses call.

Malik gets up from his seat and goes over to the nurse. The others watch as the nurse tells Malik something and the sandy blonde-haired boy turns pale. He then shakes his head disbelievingly and runs out of the room.

"Malik, what-?" Tama gets cut off by the door shutting in her face.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"DAMN IT!" Malik screams, punching the outside of the brick hospital. Rain pours from the sky's above, drenching him from head to toe. "Why me! Why us!" He looks up at the heavens, ignoring the rain. "Do you take pleasure in making our lives hell!" He curses and once again punches the wall, albeit weakly this time. "She doesn't deserve it… she doesn't deserve to die. I'll take her place!" He yells angrily. "Just don't-" His voice falters. "Don't take her away. I won't be able to take care of the twins without her. Not the way they need it. Without me really knowing she's taken a big part in my life. Even when we hated one another and were always arguing. To just see her smile…"

"Malik!" Tama yells, running out of the building, holding a black umbrella. "Malik, it's Ashling!"

Malik looks up from the ground to see his cousin running over to him.

"Malik, Ashling's awake! She's gonna be just fine." Tama says, coming up beside him. "She wants to see you. Something about not getting to scream at you at all and the fact that she needs to know what you want to name the other little boy."

It's as if a big weight has been taken off of Malik's chest. "She's alright? She's really alright?"

Tama nods. "That's right. I'm not too clear on why the doctors didn't think she'd make it, but I'll bet you anything it had something to do with her powers making the machine go haywire. Remember Yugi and the ultrasound machine?"

Malik snorts. "Yeah. He made it explode."

"Actually, that was Yami. Yugi's powers made it start emitting a loud, shrill beeping noise. Now lets get you inside before somebody else comes out to get us."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ashling is released the next day after careful observation from the nurses and doctors. Malik breaths a sigh of relief when they finally arrive home with the twins. The newest members of the Ishtar family have been named Zahur Brian Ishtar and Liam Kalil Ishtar.

Whether or not they've inherited their parent's "danger attraction" problems will have to wait until their older. But with who they're around, it's doubtful that they'll have a peaceful life.


	20. Chapter 20

_Chapter 20: Epilogue_

6-year-old Suma Muto happily chases after her cousins Amane Bakura and Yasu and Ammon Khalid. Amane and Ammon are both 5-years-old and Yasu is 6-years-old like Suma.

Suma has hair just like her dad's; the ever familiar black and red hair with bright goldenrod yellow lightning bolt shaped bangs and her eyes are amethyst. Amane has her dad's pure snowy white hair and her mother's lilac eyes. Yasu has white hair with black highlights and violet eyes. Ammon has dark red hair that has natural white highlights and his eyes are mahogany.

Amane turns around and sticks her tongue out. "Can't get me, Fireball!"

"Just you wait, Mirror-girl!" Suma yells back. "I will get you!"

Ammon laughs as he jumps over the side of the sandbox and lands in the grass. "Fireball, you couldn't catch a dog if it was sleeping!"

Suma growls loudly and lengthens her stride enough to catch up to Ammon and then she tackles him to the ground. Grinning, she comments, "Guess you're a dead dog then, huh Shadow?"

Ammon just grumbles something under his breath while Amane and Yasu laugh.

The six parents watch the kids from inside the house through the newly installed sliding glass doors.

"They look like they're having fun." Tama comments.

Yugi nods in agreement. "Reminds me of us when we were kids. Remember how we used to play tackle-tag almost every day?"

Tama laughs. "Yeah! That was when Téa could care less about rolling around in the mud and in the grass with us. Lets just hope they won't cause as much trouble as we did."

Bakura and Yume both snort and roll their eyes.

"Tama, they're our kids. Of course they're going to cause trouble. And most likely it'll be more seeing as how we've raised them to play pranks and not get caught."

-CRASH!-

"Oww!"

"Mum! Ammon broke the table!"

"It's your fault!" Ammon loudly retorts.

"My fault! You're the one who jumped on it!" Amane yells back.

Yami is the first to get up and get to the door. He quickly slides it open and sets outside and is followed by the other parents.

Tama takes one look at the table and sighs. "We really can't have anything nice, can we?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Seth! Jono! Maiko! You three take it easy!" Mai yells from the back porch of the Kaiba's mansion.

The triplets pause in the middle of sneaking up on their younger cousin and give their mother a disappointed look.

For being triplets, the Wheeler kids look quite different from one another. Seth has light brown hair and violet eyes. Jono looks just like his dad with his messy blonde hair and brown eyes. Maiko has messy wavy blonde hair and purple eyes, a miniature of her mother.

Their younger cousin is Chizu Kaiba, the daughter of Seto and Serenity. She has long ebony black hair and bright ocean blue eyes.

Chizu is 3-years-old while the triplets are 5-years-old.

"They'll be fine, Mai." Serenity says as she stands up. "I need to go check on Yukio. Can you guys watch Chizu for me?"

Joey nods. "Of course, sis. She's in capable hands!" He catches sight of Jono and Seth preparing to attack and yells, "Jono! Seth! Leave your cousin alone! Do you hear me!"

"Aww, but daddy, Chi doesn't mind! Do you, Chi?" Jono asks the raven haired child.

"We just playin', Unca Joey." Chizu says, "They no hurt me."

"Hello family!" Mokuba loudly says, stepping out the backdoor.

Now a freshman in college, Mokuba has changed a lot in four years. He's no longer the somewhat hyper, big brother worshipping, little kid he was. Now he's 19-years old, going for an art major, and is an extremely happy uncle. He's also a lot taller now, just not as tall as his brother. His hair isn't quite as long as it used to be. Now it goes about 3 inches below his shoulders and he keeps it pulled back in a low ponytail.

"Unca Mokie!" Chizu happily squeals, running over to her uncle just as Jono and Seth jump toward her. They miss and as a result clunk heads with one another.

Mokuba happily picks up his niece and spins her around in the air before letting her climb on his back.

"Horsy!"

Mai can't help but laugh when Mokuba whinnies and then begins prancing around the yard. Chizu squeals happily again and then begins laughing. Jono and Seth begin arguing and only stop when Maiko comes up and clunks their heads together. They then begin chasing one another around the yard in some strange game that's a cross between tag and red-light-green-light.

"For all the strange, chaotic things that happen in this backyard things sure are peaceful lately." Mai comments.

Joey nods. "Yeah, but it won't last too long. The Ishtar's are coming back from their trip to America this Saturday."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Liam Kalil Ishtar!" Ashling yells, running out in the front yard. "Get off of Fred and come inside!"

A strawberry blonde haired, 4-year-old boy looks at his mother with the most pathetic puppy-dog eyes possible. "Can't I-?"

"No." Ashling says firmly, giving him a look when his bottom lip begins quivering. "Liam, I said no. Now lets go inside."

Liam pouts but gets off of the large snoozing dog he and Zahur named Fred. After the numerous cats Ashling adopted, Malik finally went out and adopted a dog. Despite it being a girl dog, the twins have been insistent on calling her Fred. The name has already grown on the entire Ishtar family and so the mixed breed dog is officially named Fred. (1)

Ashling sighs and bends down, allowing the younger twin to climb onto her back. "Lets go see what daddy, Zahur, and Ophelia are up too, shall we?"

"Mm 'kay." Liam says, happy to be getting a piggy-back ride.

Inside Ashling finds her blonde-haired, blue eyed oldest son playing Connect Four with Malik. A 1-year-old girl with sandy blonde hair and lilac eyes sits in Malik's lap, happily playing with two kitty plushies.

"Hey, whatcha guys up to?" Ashling asks.

"Nothin'." Zahur says distractedly, carefully studying the game.

Malik looks up at his wife and smiles. "Zahur's beating me in Connect Four like usual, is all."

Ashling chuckles. "That's momma's little prodigy."

Liam tugs on the back of Ashling's shirt. "What am I and 'Lia?"

Ashling smiles and kneels down so Liam can get off. "Why you're momma's little prankster and Ophelia is daddy's little girl." She then tickles Liam, making him squirm and happily laugh.

"Momma, stop." Zahur says. "I trying to c- con- con-…." He looks at his dad in frustration, unable to think of the word.

"Concentrate?" Malik supplies.

Zahur nods. "Yeah. That."

Ashling complies and stops tickling Liam so that Zahur can fully concentrate on the game.

The front door now opens and Damian steps in and gives his usual loud greeting of, "Hello everyone!"

Riley steps into the house behind him, holding the hand of their two-year-old daughter, Ebony, who has her father's natural purple hair and mint green eyes.

"Hey Damian. Riley. Little Beth." Ashling greets, standing up.

Ebony smiles shyly and then hides behind Riley's leg.

"Marik, Holly, and their two were pulling in behind us." Damian says as the other half of the Ishtar family steps onto the front porch.

Marik and Holly's oldest child is 4-year-old Ryan Ishtar. He has brown hair with natural brown highlights and brown eyes with hints of lilac. The youngest is 2-year-old Matsu, who has blonde hair and lilac eyes.

"I'm starving!" Damian suddenly announces. "When are we going to eat, Dream Kitten?"

Ashling laughs. "We're eating outside today, so head on out to the backyard and crank up the radio. That'll get everyone's attention."

Damian salutes her. "Aye, aye, mon capitan! Country, right?"

Ashling nods. "Of course. After all," Her voice adopts a heavy redneck/southern accent. "We is just a buncha rednecks."

Damian laughs and picks up on the accent. "Yjay be right, misses. Now, to the backyard! Charge!" He then spins around and walks forward only to smack right into the door. Several people in the room crack up laughing and Liam looks at Damian in something akin to amazement.

"I wanna be just like Uncle Damian when I grow up!" He announces.

Ashling chokes back her laughter and mock-glares at a somewhat dazed Damian. "Stop corrupting my kid, pretty-boy!"

Damian just grins. "Not my fault the kids love me!" He says jovially, before opening the door and walking outside. Riley, Ebony, Marik, Holly, Ryan, and Matsu follow.

"I win." Zahur announces happily.

Malik blinks comically and looks at the game in wonder. "Well I'll be…"

"Scary. We've been here but a month and you're already to start talking like a southerner." Ashling comments. "Thank Ra we're leaving Saturday. Now, lets go eat! I'm starving and can smell grandpa's famous chicken and ribs!"

"Yeah! Food!" Liam cheers. "Grandpa's the best cook ever!"

"And no slipping food to Fred. Or Daisy, or Dixie, or Goldie, or Raven, or Percy. And don't feed any of the cats either. Or the squirrels." Ashling says, getting a strange look from Malik at the last one. "Park incident. You don't want to know." She tells him.

"Worse than the ducks and geese?"

"Much."

…

"Okay, let's go eat!" Ashling says, scooping up Liam and placing him back on her back. Liam immediately begins cheering as they run out of the house. Malik follows at a slower pace with Zahur and Ophelia.

And so, the next adventure has just begun.


	21. Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes

_Deleted Scene 1: Secretarial Problems_

Tama walks into Seto's office with a stack of papers and sets them down on the brunettes desk. Then she turns to her boss. "Okay, what happened  _this_ time?"

Seto glances up from his laptop and points to the door. "You. Secretary. Now."

Tama blinks and then blinks again. "Wha- Oh." She narrows her lilac eyes into a glare. "You fired your secretary again, didn't you."

Seto nods.

"Seto! You promised you wouldn't fire another one of them without a second opinion!" Tama exclaims. "How can you expect to keep things going smoothly if you fire a secretary once every week!"

Seto has turned his full attention back to his laptop and is barely listening to a word his brother's assistant is saying.

"-and furthermore, I don't- Are you even listening to me? SETO KAIBA!"

Seto jumps in his chair and then glares at Tama. "What?"

"What was wrong with this one? Did she talk too loudly or too softly? Giggle too much? Wear too much make-up? Did her voice get on your nerves? What was it?"

Seto fixes his patented death glare on Tama. "She tried to jump me."

Tama blinks several times. "Oh." She says squeekily. "Well, I'll just be going out there to play secretary now. Tell Mokuba where I'm at if he asks for me."

Once Tama is gone Seto looks down at a piece of paper which reads: "reason for dismissal? She annoys me"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

_Deleted Scene 2: Pegasus's Permission_

Pegasus sits at his desk surrounded by papers and a plushy or two of his favorite Toon World duel monster. Seto is standing in front of him with a rather annoyed expression on his face.

"I'll give you permission if you do one thing for me, Kaiba-boy." Pegasus says, as he strokes the head of one of the plushies.

"What is it?" Seto asks, already dreading the answer.

Pegasus grins. "Let me make you and your friends into cards!"

Seto's mind makes a quick trip to the past during the Duelist Kingdom incident. "No."

Pegasus sighs heavily and stops stroking the plushy. "You misunderstand, Kaiba-boy. I want some pictures so I can create cards of you all. I can no longer capture your soul in a card."

Seto considers all of this, ignoring the whole 'capture your soul in a card thing'. "Fine. But no tricks Pegasus."

"Oh, I wouldn't  _dream_ of trying to trick you! Now, where are those pictures?" Pegasus asks, leaning forward excitedly.

Seto drops a photo album onto the desk. He took the album from Mokuba before coming in because Mokuba was about to put some rather embarrassing photo's of him in it. "All of the pictures are labeled and I want that back. It's Mokuba's."

Pegasus just 'hmm's' as he flips through the photo album. "I'll have the cards finished before you leave.

"Good." Seto says, before turning to leave.

"Oh and Kaiba-boy!" Pegasus calls, stopping the brunette.

Seto almost growls and turns around to face the silver-haired man. "What?"

"I'd see about getting rid of that heart painted on your cheek. Someone might think you actually have one."

This time Seto does growl before whirling around and storming out of the room.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

_Deleted Scene 3: The Cards_

Mokuba happily sets a blue colored box onto Seto's desk. Seto suspiciously eyes his younger brother from his seat at his desk where he's working on his laptop.

"Tama! Come in here!" Mokuba yells.

Now knowing what Mokuba is up to, Seto takes his attention away from his laptop to narrow his eyes at his younger brother. "Mokuba, I swear if you show Tama I'll-"

Mokuba smirks and holds up a manilla folder.

"-do nothing." Seto finishes, paling slightly. The contents of the folder will go unnamed to preserve what little sanity that Seto has left.

Tama walks into the room at this time, her hair pulled up into two ponytails for the first time in years. "How are my dear soul-brothers doing?"

Mokuba's smirk changes to a grin and the folder mysteriously vanishes from sight. "You've got to check this out, Tama!" He exclaims, gesturing to the box. "Seto had to make a deal with Pegasus in order to do the whole Duel Academy thing and he gave us half of the finished product! He's keeping the matching set. Look, look! It's Yume!" He pulls a few cards out from the box. "And here's Bakura! Oh, and here's you, Yugi, Ryou, and Malik!"

Tama takes the cards and looks at them. The first one is titled 'Dragon Guardian' and the female duel monster has long, straight dark red hair and a single lightning bolt shaped bang going over her left eye. Her eyes are amethyst and she's wearing black, Egyptian style clothing and has a golden shield with a dragon on it and a sheathed sword. Next is the 'King of Thieves' card. This duel monster looks almost exactly like Bakura, except his hair is alot shorter and the monster's eyes are red. The 'King of Thieves' also wears black Egyptian style clothes except he wears more jewelry and gold. A beige bag is slung casually over the duel monster's shoulder. Before Tama has a chance to look at the last one Mokuba speaks up.

"Aren't they cool?" He asks.

Tama nods and looks at the last card in her hand which is titled 'Lights of the Darknesses'. The card isn't a monster card at all, but is a spell card. The 'monster' in the card representing her has wavy dark red hair and two sandy blonde lightning bolt shaped bangs that nearly cover her light brown eyes. The one representing Ryou has pure white hair that's a little shorter than how Ryou has it and the 'monster' has lilac colored eyes. The one representing Malik has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes and the 'monster' representing Yugi has shorter spikey dark red hair. Each of the figures have angelic wings and a light-ish glow around them.

Mokuba snickers and hands Tama another one once he's sure she's done. "You've got to see this one."

Seto pales. "Mokuba Kaiba! Don't you dare show her that-" He gets cut off by a small giggle from Tama.

"It's so cute! Look at you, Mokuba!" Tama exclaims, handing back the card titled 'Priest's Dragon Assistant'. The duel monster looks alot like Mokuba with black hair and blue-gray eyes, but with added dragonic black wings and pointed ears.

Seto sighs in relief and is about to go back to his work when...

"Hey, is this Seto?" Tama questions, holding up the 'Kaiba Man' card.

Tama and Mokuba both look over at Seto in worry when they hear his head hit the desk with a solid 'thunk!'.

"Seto? Seto, are you okay?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

_Deleted Scene 4: Joey Flips Out_

"Get your hands off my sister, rich boy!" Joey yells angrily.

Seto coolly glances over at the blonde haired duelist. "Well, if it isn't the barking chihuahua." He comments. "Where's your little dueling monkey?"

Joey immediately turns red. "I'm not a dog and don't insult my friends! And stay away from my sister!"

Seto crosses his arms over his chest, now annoyed with his girlfriend's extremely overprotective brother. "You have a one-track mind, don't you, Wheeler." When Joey growls he smirks. "Well, you certainly  _sound_ like a dog."

"Big brother? Seto?" Serenity questions uncertainly as she walks over to them. "Is everything okay?"

"Your brother was just saying how he hopes we have a good time on our date." Seto lies, slipping an arm around Serenity's waist and leading her away.

In the background, Joey turns even more red and then kicks the sidewalk in his anger. Now cursing and howling from pain, he hops around on one foot as if that will help alleviate the pain.


End file.
